


Red Sun Over Beacon V1

by Gleaming_Onyx



Series: Red Sun Over Beacon [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Drama, Gen, General, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-07-08 14:37:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 65,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15932486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gleaming_Onyx/pseuds/Gleaming_Onyx
Summary: Convinced by Blake to follow her out of the White Fang, Adam finds himself forced to mingle with humans in Beacon Academy, namely in his new team: RWAY("Rua"). Now, he must struggle both with his hatred and his team's... eccentricities, all while struggling to keep his former way of life a secret. Being on the same team as the target of his entire organization's hatred, though, does have a tendency to make that...Difficult.(Updates on Sundays)





	1. A Long Week

**A Long Week**

* * *

Amber eyes stared up into an impassive, pale mask. 

"Why?"

Blake had left her guard down. That was a mistake. With one step, Adam had crossed the separated train cars and now stood looming over her. Ruby-red trees swept past them in a blur. The question meant many things: why did Blake think she could get away so easily? Why was she trying to leave the White Fang? Why was she trying to leave him?

_"Why?"_ Adam growled again. He advanced a step, then paused: Blake's hand was on her weapon's hilt, trembling. Did she truly think he would harm her, without even knowing her reasoning? His eyes narrowed, but, he did not move further.

"I asked you a question, Blake."

"You've changed." This was a conversation they'd had many times before. That didn't answer his question.

"What of it?" Blake flinched. "You've become weak."

Her bow flattened against her head. "Weak? I don't want to kill innocents, that's not weakness!"

"Innocents? Blake, do you remember who owns this train?" Adam swept his arm off towards the myriad of snowflake-stamped crates. "This is a Schnee cargo train! There are no innocent Schnees! No innocent humans!"

"Then how is the White Fang any different from them?" Adam's blade was out of his sheath and pointed at her faster than even he could recognize it. Adam took the second of stunned silence to steady his hand, mask his shock at his own wrath, and regain control.

"Blake, you know how much I care for you..." But, he did not lower his blade. "Which is why I am asking you to choose your next words carefully."

Curiously, Blake's stare only hardened. She didn't even make a step away from his blade. "Not everyone in the White Fang are killers like us. What about the people just handing out fliers? Or donating? Or just driving our trucks? That's exactly what the people on this train are: non-combatants. Adam, if we kill them... if you kill them... you'll be just like the SDC. I can't stay with you like this. Not after guiding you to this point, myself. This was my fault..."

Revenge. That was what he wanted to call it: revenge for their crimes against faunus everywhere. Yet, in their many arguments, he remembered when it wasn't revenge, it was retaliation. When it wasn't retaliation, it was self-defense. When it wasn't self-defense, it was just an accident. His eyes turned down to his crimson blade, pointed so quickly at someone who was all but a sister to him without a thought.

Adam's grip slackened. "It's the only way they'll listen, and you know it." His words were hollow.

Now, it was Blake's turn to step forward. Adam stepped back. "So, what happens when we win, then, Adam? Are we just going to bomb the humans once in a while to show them who's in charge? Just like they used to do to us? We'll only be ruling through fear!"

"No, that is ruling through power!"

"Whatever power has to be gained through massacring civilians isn't a power we need." Blake shook her head. "What happened to our revolution, Adam? What happened to _you?_ "

Adam gritted his teeth and tried to ignore how her words struck him like a knife. "This _is_ our revolution, Blake. This _is_ me!"

"This is terrorism, Adam, and I won't stand by it any longer," Blake said solemnly. She took a breath to steady herself, then turned away from him. "And if that's what you are, then... I don't want to see you again." And, with that twist of the knife already in his heart, all thoughts of the White Fang left him. Blake was truly going to leave him, just like that? She was his friend for as long as he could remember: his partner, his comrade, and at one time, his lover. Maybe it was arrogance, but if he couldn't convince Blake of all people that there was something of worth in him, maybe there really was nothing at all. Maybe he'd lost himself, and taken the White Fang with it.

He stared down at his blade. Engraved near the hilt was a Mistralian symbol, a tenant from his mentor's home country: _Chuugi._ Loyalty. His mentor may have scoffed at the notion, but, Adam kept it close ever since he had heard of it.

What loyalty was there in letting someone he'd known for years just walk away?

Adam looked up to see Blake already walking away. He took a deep breath, then, made his decision. "... If you think the White Fang is wrong, then fix it." Blake stopped. "And I'll help you every step of the way."

Blake spun to look at him, eyes wide in apparent shock. Her lips parted once to speak, but, she stayed silent. Adam resisted the urge to smile as, slowly, her ears began to twitch, and her eyes darted across her surroundings. It was what she did whenever she was planning something. Adam had the utmost faith that, whatever her strategy may be, he would be glad to follow it.

* * *

Blake was an idiot and he was an even bigger one for listening.

Adam stroked his temples in what was quickly becoming his favorite action, now that he had no mask to worry about. He was brooding—not pouting, there was a severe difference, he told himself—over the many _other_ things he had to worry about, instead.

Like being on a loud, human-packed airship headed to Beacon Academy.

In Blake's grand wisdom, she decided that while she went off to Menagerie, he was going to take a nice little 'vacation' in Beacon Academy. Learn how to mingle with humans, she said! Make yourself less hostile, she said! He could've easily just spent time in a human settlement if she was so picky about it, but, according to her, having to _protect_ them would help even more. Yeah. He'd believe it when he saw it.

Not like he had much of a choice: the only faunus he even saw on this ship was the girl he sat next to now, one who tried to hide her cheetah ears under a hoodie. How demeaning.

He tried brushing his hand through his hair and nearly knocked off the new, black homburg hat hiding his horns. Ah, right. She wasn't alone in that demeaning act. Make no mistake, he hated every moment of hiding what made him a faunus, but it wasn't his own idea. Blake decided that it'd be easier to stay low if he hid what made him a faunus. She didn't want him to be targeted. Adam would have _loved_ to be targeted by one of these fools... but, considering how the—right and justified—retribution he would rain down would more than likely get him outed as a terrorist or expelled, he supposed Blake had a point.

_However,_ that did not mean he had to forgive her for getting forged transcripts that painted him as a hooligan. At the supposed age of nineteen, he, "Adam Belladonna," did not have a lick of formal experience or schooling. Even with his prodigious combat ability, it wouldn't let him beyond being a first-year. A twenty-one year old surrounded by seventeen year olds. Oh, he could feel the headache coming back.

He was a drop-out.

Sure, that was _true_ , but that didn't mean it had to be rubbed in his face by putting him with first-years! It was even more demeaning! Adam just collapsed back into his seat and crossed his arms, muttering under his breath.

... It was still brooding, not pouting!

* * *

"Watch it!" Adam barked at an apparently blind girl who decided to deploy a monstrosity of a scythe an inch away from his face. The red-headed wielder didn't even notice, chattering away to a taller, blonde, human woman. Typical human. He stalked through the crowd, instinct drawing his eyes to anyone who could pose a threat. Adam grunted a halfhearted apology to some white-haired girl he nearly bumped into, not even bothering to turn to the human with a Schnee crest emblazoned on her back and—wait, what was that last part?

Adam spun on his heels to see none other than the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company dragging along her luggage and ordering around a pair of guards to collect the rest. Weiss Schnee. A Schnee. Alone. Only two guards. Within spitting distance of him. There were entire cells that would kill for a chance like this, and here he was, with Wilt in hand and her back to him. Oh, what luck! What fate! What evil fortune!

Surely, Blake would excuse just a small slip of the blade for something this important. Just enough to satisfy all the White Fang would want, then escape, change his name—again—and start anew! Again! A simple plan—

The scythe-wielder tumbled right into the Schnee's Dust and luggage, interrupting his thoughts. Right. Others were around. Remembering not only who he now was, but what life he was supposed to be putting behind him, Adam thought about simply turning away... yet, he just couldn't upon hearing that Schnee ranting at the admittedly clumsy, young-looking girl for events she never could have foreseen. The ranting turned to screaming after, with naught but a sneeze, the clumsy girl created an explosion that, unfortunately, left the Schnee unharmed.

Petty victories against the SDC, Adam supposed, would have to do. Speaking of which, he thought as he picked up a bottle flung away from the explosion, make that nice bottle of fine, red Dust she dropped the first one... what? Blake didn't have any problems with stealing an entire train car's worth, surely one little bottle wouldn't hurt...

"Aren't you a little _young_ to be attending Beacon?" The Schnee's shrill voice sliced through the air as Adam calmly approached, unheard and unseen both. And for his _second_ petty victory...

"Aren't you a little old to be having temper tantrums?"

The Schnee jumped slightly at someone as tall as him being able to sneak up on her. Any fright, however, swiftly gave way to rage.

"Excuse me?" she growled. "Do you even _know_ who you're talking to?" The clumsy one managed a smile as Adam smirked. Bad idea.

"Of course, my deepest apologies. I should be much more pleasant when speaking to the heiress of a beloved and well-respected Dust propellant producer..." He waited until the Schnee opened her mouth to continue, "Unfortunately, no such person is here. Instead stands before me Weiss Schnee, heiress to the most reviled and discriminating corporation since the abolition of slavery. Well, official abolition. You should know." By the time he had finished, the Schnee had gone from just angry to flustered, indignant and stuttering to form a response. Her cheeks were growing red with embarrassment and rage both.

"Oh, and by the way, _Schnee_ ," he spat her name like a curse. "Before you insult someone for looking young, maybe wait until _after_ puberty hits." The clumsy one snickered and stuck her tongue out at the spoiled girl.

"Unbelievable!" With a strangled growl of frustration, the Schnee stormed off without even grabbing her suitcases. A job well done, and a petty victory well-earned. Satisfied, Adam turned to leave.

"Hey, uh, what's your name?" the clumsy human asked.

Adam raised an eyebrow. "Adam." He decided to walk faster, lest the human girl mistake a common enemy for an alliance.

"Oh, I'm Ruby! Nice to meet you!" Unfortunately, she chose to follow him around like a lost puppy. Adam sighed as she trailed behind, rattling off about her scythe, her hometown, her sister, and having the terribly annoying tendency to take his grunts of agitation as reason to continue. It was only when he heard a _second_ voice did he realize someone else had joined along: some blonde human boy who... actually, on second look, was the one vomiting on the airship a moment ago.

Adam made sure to lose the two in the amphitheater as soon as possible.

* * *

As Ozpin walked away from the microphone with a limp in his step, Adam smiled: dark as his speech may have been, it did rather well in unsettling the new blood. That would prepare them better for what was to come... but that was also quite odd: the entire reason he was sent to Beacon by Blake was, according to her, the much more pleasant atmosphere and human-faunus relations.

So far, he was seeing little of both.

* * *

Humans were loud. Humans were _very_ loud. While the other students were preparing for bed or playing around, Adam had long since given up on the thought of actually going to sleep any time soon. Not only would the noise keep him awake, but he hadn't been able to get a good night's sleep with others being awake around him for years. The only exception to that was Blake and, as he snapped his Scroll shut, he was reminded once more of her absence. No new messages.

His back to the wall and his hands busying themselves with inspecting his crimson blade, Wilt, and his sheath-rifle, Blush, for even the slightest imperfection under the light of a nearby candle, Adam decided he would just need to wait until the others were asleep. Every last one of them. It was going to be a long night.

He'd already begun to push the din of humanity to the back of his mind, turning it into ambient noise fit to ignore. Being further back where many of the faunus had unofficially segregated themselves helped.

Restless sleep or perhaps none at all. What wonderful choices. The din grew louder: Adam supposed it would have to be no sleep, after all. It wouldn't be the first time. He carefully ran a cloth along the side of the blade—

"Hey, don't be a punk! Can't you see my sis is trying to talk to you!" Adam paused, becoming aware that the din had been calling to him, the entire time. To his agitation, there were now two girls in front of him: the clumsy one, Ruby, and... some other, much louder one.

"Really, Yang, it's fine, I don't really, _really_ need to talk to him, he's busy!" Though in her pajamas, the clumsy one was protesting against her apparent sister's actions and trying to drag her away, to no avail. Strange. The clumsy one had crimson hair fading to almost completely black at its roots, alabaster skin and silver eyes he'd never seen, before. The... _loud_ one now scowling at him, Yang, appeared to have blonde hair as ridiculously long as it would be dangerous to her in combat and lilac eyes. There appeared to be zero relation between them at all.

"See, Rubes! I got his attention for you!" She'd bounced from agitation to happiness awfully quick.

"Uh... hi! I'm Ruby, you know, from the explosion... followed you here..." Ruby trailed off under Adam's blank stare.

"What, are you too cool to talk to people, or something? Come on!" Still apparently annoyed with him, Yang snapped him out of his thoughts by leaning down and waving her hand in front of his eyes.

"I was busy." He returned to polishing Wilt, hopefully in peace, this time. Yang growled and turned to Ruby to say something, but by now, he had already pushed the noise back into ambience. Though, he could hear Yang mumbling something about 'jackass' under her breath as they walked away. Adam sighed, and ignored the little, Blake-sounding voice in his head reminding him that he was supposed to try and make friends.

"Is that an Akakuni?" Adam's gaze snapped up from his weapon. Ruby peered down at Adam with a curious smile.

He blinked. "Yes... yes it is, actually." It was rare enough for anyone in Mistral to recognize a blade forged by Akakuni, let alone anyone in Vale. The meaning behind his trademark crimson blades had quickly fallen by the wayside since his original withdrawal from the public. The world of weapons moved quickly.

"Ooh, I'm so jealous! I followed everything he did when I was younger, before he... y'know..." Died from an order sent to a gang gone wrong. Ruby leaned down as Adam raised an eyebrow. "Wait... a straight-edge sword? This must be one of his first, unless... it's a mecha-shifting weapon?" Her eyes widened as she spotted Blush. "A fire-propelled quickdraw-type? I take it back, this must've been one of his last works! How'd you get your hands on it! Where'd you find it? Are there more?" Any sense of being impressed rapidly faded back to agitation as Ruby got increasingly and uncomfortably closer with each question.

"You... certainly know a lot about weaponry." He narrowed his eyes. "And not a lot about personal space..." Adam grumbled, now all but pressing himself back into the wall with Ruby's sparkling eyes only a few inches away. She didn't get the hint until her supposed sister physically tugged her away.

"Yeaaah, don't mind her, she gets like this about every weapon." She held Ruby back as only more questions tumbled from her lips. "... I'm Yang, by the way!"

Adam warily looked between the two sisters. "I'm Adam," he drawled.

"And _I'm_ trying to sleep!" The shrill, frustrated and decidedly _Schnee_ voice broke through their conversations.

"Oh, not you again!" Ruby shouted. Adam sighed and sheathed his blade.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

Scratch that, it was going to be a long _week_ , Adam thought as he was catapulted through the sky above the Emerald Forest. Everything about this sounded insane: find a partner who you will work well with, Ozpin says! Sensible, if only your partner for four years was not determined by who you first make eye contact with! Professor Ozpin was kindly and understanding, Blake claimed! 'Destroy everything in your path or _you will_ _die'_ did not sound particularly kind! It was not that Adam was incapable of doing so, but this would have been outrageous for _his_ cell, let alone these prissy Huntsmen!

With a gunfire-boosted draw of his blade, Adam sent himself whirling through the air and slashing through branches until he'd slowed enough for his aura to soften his fall. Right. First things first: locate and partner with someone who he wouldn't want to murder for what could be the next four years.

Adam was an honest man... to himself, anyway. He knew such a task might wind up more difficult than he thought.

He just didn't know _how_ much more difficult such a thing would be.

* * *

With negativity came the creatures of Grimm, and right now, Weiss was a _very_ negative person. Why shouldn't she be? Did the Schnee heiress' first day gain her friends? Allies? Maybe even just some knowledge on who some likely partners would be? No! She got nothing but hatred, anger and people literally coming out of nowhere for no purpose other than to make her day worse! It was like she was in Atlas all over again! Half of the reason she had even come to Beacon in the first place was that so she could make a fresh start and... as much as she loathed to admit it, actually make some friends, for once. At least Pyrrha Nikos seemed fond of her.

At least she wasn't _universally_ reviled.

Unfortunately, all of those dark feelings had invited Grimm to the little clearing she'd paused in: Weiss counted at least five Beowolves circling around her. They were sizing her up and looking for weaknesses. Fortunately, that give her the time to strike first!

Weiss darted forward under a swing from the largest of them and thrust her rapier forth in three swift jabs to the lead Beowolf's hide. Following the natural rhythm of battle, she flipped away from the Grimm's desperate swing and twirled. Decidedly not following the natural rhythm of battle, however, another Beowolf slapped her out of her spin and sent her skidding right back into the center of the ring of Grimm. They'd stopped, now, all kneeling low in preparation for combat. She had to remember her training...

Once more focusing the lead Beowolf, she turned Mrytenaster's cylinder until she found her red Dust and gathered her aura...

* * *

The sounds of ferocious combat from afar immediately drew Ruby's attention. Finally, she thought, she'd been searching for someone for what felt like forever, now! The roars of Grimm called to her like a beacon, and Ruby dashed in that direction as quickly as she could: she couldn't let her to-be-partner be stolen by someone else, after all! She kicked off of trees and sped up, soon spotting the signature white spikes of a powerful Grimm peeking out from between the brush.

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose, cranked up her Semblance and kicked off a final tree for extra momentum. She had to take at least one down, or else they might see her as weak! With a ferocious battle cry—at least in her mind, anyway—she swung down at her target!

* * *

This search was going nowhere, Adam thought. It was not the matter of finding anyone that caused so much trouble, no, he could tell where these freshmen were from a mile away with how little stealth they tried to use. It was the matter of finding anyone worth partnering with! There really weren't that many faunus at all, in this class: unfortunately, the cheetah faunus from the airship had been picked up by some human who sounded disgusted he'd even caught sight of her. It took effort and the mental reminder that they were being watched to not have him have a little... _accident_ that would free her up. A little lovetap to the head would've been enough to knock him out. Blame it on a Grimm. He'd find another racist human partner later. Or die.

No big loss.

Speaking of humans, a boisterous mace-user shouting out for 'his bro Russel' as he laughed and smashed a Grimm's skull in did not look particularly pleasant. Nor did the odd redhead with a warhammer just sitting in the branches, humming, swinging her legs and perpetually scanning the horizon. Adam had no clue what she was looking for, especially since his attempt to question her was just met with a "Nope!" and not even a glance in his direction.

He could always just go to the temple alone and wait to see if anyone else had the same idea, Adam wondered. His thoughts were broken, however, by the low growls of Grimm, including at least one alpha, from the sounds of it. Upon listening closer, he could even hear the beginnings of combat: a student versus multiple Grimm and believing themselves capable enough to fight them alone? It was either suicidal or promising. Adam picked up the pace and jogged off in that direction.

The plan was simple: show off. Kill the alpha in a single blow and it should establish himself as a powerhouse to be followed and feared, and this would no doubt be something the instructors would notice as well. It would be an easy cruise towards leading a team. One of the Grimm came in sight as his jog turned into a full on run.

* * *

_Now!_

Weiss glided at top speed towards the Beowolf, channeled her aura into her rapier, and nearly shouted out in surprise as a blur of a black and red shot out from nowhere and struck at the Grimm, landing right in her path. She stumbled and lost focus, turning her well-timed blow into a wave of flame that decimated a nearby tree and the dry grass surrounding it.

* * *

"What! You want some too?!" The Ursa reared up to meet Yang's challenge... and stood stock-still as a meaty _thunk_ resounded from its back. It slowly toppled over, revealing the crimson scythe embedded in its back and the grinning, giddy face of Ruby Rose.

"Hi, sis!"

* * *

"Have you lost your..." Weiss trailed off as the 'stranger' whipped the shadows from his blade and slowly sheathed it in unison with the falling halves of the now-bisected Alpha Beowolf. She winced and tried to look away as he turned to face her. She was too slow.

Emerald eyes met ice blue.

_**"You,"**_ they both growled.

It was going to be a long _month._

Surely, that would be how long it would take before Adam couldn't take being near his new 'partner' Weiss Schnee any longer.


	2. Black and White

**Black and White**

* * *

"Well, that would appear to be the last of our teams," huffed Glynda Goodwitch as she took her place beside Ozpin. Her neutral, exacerbated tone did little to hide the burning rage within. With their keen eyes and vantage point they held atop the launching grounds overlooking the landscape, they could see all within the Emerald Forest. Anything truly hidden beneath the canopies, however, could easily be watched from the black and gold, tablet-sized Scrolls they held in their hands. Suffice to say, nothing could escape their watch.

Goodwitch, however, was not focused on the forest, nor the potential students within it. She was busy burning a hole in the side of her boss' head with her glare. Ozpin appeared blissfully unaware of such a thing, sipping down the last of his hot chocolate and nodding to himself as the silver-eyed girl met up with her sister. Such was good: Ruby Rose was sure to be safe, now.

Alas, his ruminating would have to end. Glynda's glare could be ever so distracting when it was just at the edge of your peripheral vision.

Ozpin sighed, and spoke without turning his head. "Proceed, Glynda—"

"Have you lost your mind, Ozpin! Perhaps you may have seen enough potential in that Arc boy not to have Oobleck sweep him out of this forest in an instant, but, this?" She thrust her Scroll in his face like incriminating evidence. "Him?!" On her screen was a different pair: Weiss Schnee and Adam "Belladonna" circling one another with a swath of the forest burning behind them. Their words were muted, yet clearly biting. The latter looked like he was about to explode at any given moment. The former's cheeks were already red with indignation.

Ozpin already missed his hot chocolate.

"You've placed a literal _terrorist_ in our midst! It is not just Miss Schnee that is in danger but every student in that forest! How long do you think it'll be before he snaps, Ozpin, because it looks to me like if one of us doesn't step in _now_ we'll have the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company dead and a psychopath hiding on our campus!"

Seeing no way to avoid having to talk to the increasingly irate witch, Ozpin closed his eyes and sighed once more. "Have faith, Glynda. Our foes seem rather keen on turning allies into enemies, I'd say it's about time we consider the same. Besides, there is no such thing as pure evil. Dare I say it, not even Her." He paused. "Even so, I can assure you that I have numerous contingencies for if I am wrong." He didn't like admitting it, but, he was no stranger to the concept. He could only hope this was not going to become one of his many mistakes.

As Ozpin changed the view of his Scroll to match Glynda's, he decided praying would perhaps be better suited.

* * *

"If you think I would ever want to be on a team with you, then you must have lost your mind!" the Schnee girl shouted at Adam as they circled one another like a pair of predators. Both of their eyes searched for even a single sign of weakness. The growing forest fire burned far away from them both, yet the scent of burning pine still filled their senses.

"Leave, then. Be my guest! I would _love_ to have you get thrown out of this place. After all, it isn't as if there aren't any instructors watching and grading our every move and would see you flagrantly throwing the rules aside, right? But, please, it's not like something as silly as rules and law would ever stop a Schnee from getting their way, right, Princess?" Adam scoffed.

"Like a barbarian such as yourself should be so judgemental! You can scarcely even follow the rules of combat: we are _meant_ to strike in turn, not leap in each others' way!"

" 'Strike in turn'? Do you really think the Beowolves would just sit there and look pretty like one of your pathetic androids while you do so? Maybe if you spent more time actually practicing as you did shrieking about things not going your way, you'd be a fighter worth a damn! Stick to your training dummies and stay out of my way."

The Schnee took a sharp breath, eyes flaring and fists clenching as she stormed towards him. Adam gladly did the same until they'd met in the middle of the circle they'd been treading, barely inches away from one another.

"I'll have you know that I have trained and prepared for this day more than you can even fathom! Those flames could have killed you!" She jabbed a finger at him. Adam harshly slapped her hand away. The Schnee winced, and he scowled.

"In your dreams, perhaps. You can scarcely take down a single Beowolf: whatever training you had was clearly not enough." He jabbed a finger back into her chest. "You should've stayed in Atlas, just like _dear old sister_." Adam stormed off into the forest with a flick of his coat. He couldn't help but smirk as he heard the Schnee's scream of rage and felt the wave of fire decimate a tree beside him.

Unseen by either, a single feather larger than either of them slowly settled atop the felled, burning tree. With negativity comes Grimm.

Adam and Weiss were currently two _**very**_ negative people.

* * *

"Ruuuby, did you hunt me down?" Yang asked her in the best 'big sister' voice she could muster as the Ursa faded away into black miasma. With her best 'little sister' puppy eyes that Ruby could muster, she mumbled:

"Maybe a little..." Yang tried to glare at her, but, even after so many years, trying to fight back against those puppy eyes was still an exercise in futility.

She groaned. "Aw, come on, Rubes, I thought I told you that you should've tried to partner with someone else!" Yang tried to chastise her, but just couldn't wipe the grin off of her face: who was she kidding? It only took her the time between being launched and landing before she'd tried to search Ruby out, herself. Try as she might, she didn't think she'd be letting her little sis go any time soon.

"Too late, now!" Ruby said in a sing-song voice and skipped up to Yang's side as they made their way through the forest.

Yang just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'm still mad, though..." The snarls of Grimm from ahead got their attention. Two Beowolves crept out from the brush. They were young, with bone plating uneven and spaced out across their furry forms. That just made it all the more annoying to Ruby when Yang not-so-subtly stepped in front of her and deployed her gauntlets.

"Sooo, can I blame you for this, then?" Ruby asked with a snicker. She stepped back and twirled Crescent Rose in her hands, but Yang already jumped into the fray. She didn't even get a shot off before Yang got rid of them.

"Yaaang! I want to fight too!" Ruby complained as they walked on.

Yang just brushed it off with her usual grin. "What's wrong with wanting to protect your little sister?"

"I don't _need_ protecting, I'm big and strong already!" Ruby got the slightest feeling that, maybe, Yang didn't want Ruby to join another team just for her sake alone.

* * *

"You know the temple was to the _right,_ don't you?" Of course the first words the Schnee said to him after they finished their last argument would be another challenge.

"Those were rocks." Adam rubbed his temples: sometimes, he didn't miss that mask of his at all.

"You never even checked, they could have had vital clues on them!"

"There haven't been clues anywhere else, I don't see how there would be any clues now."

"Because the first clue has to be _somewhere_!"

Adam finally stopped in another clearing and glared down at the Schnee. "Are you incapable of ever actually admitting to being wrong?"

She jerked back in surprise at Adam's sudden question, then growled. "Excuse me? I'm just trying to help and you're insulting me?"

"Perhaps it's because I'm sick and tired already of hearing you act like you know everything!" Adam hissed. The Schnee trembled with anger and frustration before asking something Adam did not actually expect:

"Just what did I do to you, anyway?! The only thing you've even done is insult me since before we even met! So, have I done something to you in the past, or are you just that arrogant and socially inept with everyone?" Mainly because that was the dumbest question he had heard from her, does she mean 'what has she done'? Could she not see the horns on his head?

"What kind of question is that? Are you blind? Can't you see the hor..." Oh. Right. She _couldn't_ see his horns. Because he was wearing a _stupid hat._  
"... horrible damage your family has done to this world?" He gritted his teeth through his narrow save.

"Oh, you're one of _those._ The ruffians who believe everything they hear about the Schnee family because they refuse to do some thinking and admit just how silly those claims are." The Schnee dismissively waved him off and turned around to look for the way to the temple. Astounded and incensed alike by her sheer ignorance, Adam just cocked his head to one side. "Let me guess, head a little too deep in those faunus-sympathizer books?" He barely recognized the soft click his blade made as he pushed it from its sheath.

He had to get away from her. He had to get away before he did something that he would... alright, well, he wasn't going to regret it, but someone, somewhere might, and that counted enough.

"Do some research and actually educate yourself some time, maybe you'll figure out just how biased the people speaking against the Schnee family really are!" So absorbed in herself, the Schnee clearly didn't the hatred growing in his eyes. And then, like the hands of some merciful god reaching down, Adam had the wind knocked out of him and found himself careening through the air.

"Besides, I'm not my family, anyway, so I would appreciate—" She jumped in surprise at the sudden rush of wind and flicker of black in the corner of her eye. Whipping around, Weiss was left staring up as Adam was flying off in the sky... in the clutches of a giant Nevermore.

He didn't exactly appear displeased by this turn of events.

* * *

"Huh, that was easy!" Yang said as they pushed out of the brush and found themselves standing in front of the temple. At least, it might've been a temple a long time ago: standing atop a hill, the stone structure had been reduced to little more than a circular set of old, moss-covered pillars and broken, stone ground. Pedestals holding black and gold chess pieces sat in the center. Some were empty: others had already been here.

"Aw, not easy enough for us to be first, though..." Ruby wandered up to the pedestals and looked them over. Her eyes lit up as they fell on a golden knight. "Ooh, a pony! And it's in your color, too, sis!" She snatched it off and turned to Yang. Whatever she was about to say, though, was cut off by a high-pitched scream sounding off from deeper in the forest.

"Oh, no! Some girl's in trouble! Yang, what should we do?" Ruby looked over towards where the scream had come from. Yang... didn't say anything. "Yang?" She shook Yang's shoulder. "Hello? Remnant to Yang?" Yang tapped her shoulder and pointed up at the sky. Namely, the gigantic Nevermore soaring right for them.

"... Oh."

* * *

The Schnee actually followed him. Adam was almost impressed.

"Are you insane! What kind of idea was this?!" Almost as impressed as he was with the Schnee being so loud he could still hear her voice while atop of a Nevermore. While being forced into a partnership with a Schnee made the sweet release of death increasingly appetizing, Adam had decided he wasn't going to allow a mere Grimm to claim him. Wriggling and climbing had left him able to crawl his way to the top of the beast, where he now kneeled.

"A smart one! I can already see the temple from here!" He had buried Wilt into its hide, yanking it like a pilot would a joystick and with about the same effect on the flying beast, albeit with more screeching from the Grimm. "We'll be fine!" He paused. The Schnee, on the other hand, was left holding onto one of its feathers for dear life. "I'll be fine," Adam corrected himself. He was having way too much fun with this to be safe.

" _You'll_ be fine?! What about me?!" She let out a scream when, with a jerk of his blade, Adam turned the Nevermore towards the temple below. He looked behind him with a vicious smirk.

"If you have such a problem with it, just jump, like I'm about to!" Unfortunately, he couldn't see the look on the Schnee's face when he yanked his blade out and was gone with the wind before the situation even clicked in her mind. Adam could, however, hear the last thing she shouted to him:

"WHAT?!" Ah, petty victories, indeed. Turning in the skies with one hand smashing his hat down against his head and the other gripping his weapon, Adam let out a dark laugh unheard in the rushing wind. Maybe it was just a coping mechanism or just being filled with so much pent up anger that it had overflowed back into neutrality, but Adam was feeling like perhaps things would not be so bad at Beacon, after all. Well, until his petty victories couldn't fuel him any longer, but that was easily months away... weeks... he could last a few days.

Too busy in his thoughts, Adam didn't notice the screaming student flying through the air right towards him until he'd already been smashed into the canopy of a tree. His blade was already drawn and pointed at his attacker before he could think, mind flying back to his White Fang instincts, but a girly shriek snapped him back to the sad reality of just being a student. A student with his blade at the neck of another one. Right. Probably shouldn't do that.

"C-c-come on, man, it was just an accident, I swear! Let's not get crazy, a-alright?" The mystery boy, left hanging upside down from the branches above, panicked and waved his arms about enough so that Adam had to sheath his blade just so he wouldn't cut himself on it. Wait... no, this wasn't a mystery boy at all. He remembered him from the airship. The one Ruby was speaking to. This was—

"Vomit Boy," he stated dryly.

Vomit Boy brought an arm up—well, down, Adam supposed—to protest, then sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, that's me. Do you think you could maybe, I don't know, cut me down? Kinda stuck here."

Adam ignored Vomit Boy to scan the horizon and the temple both. He paused when he saw Ruby waving to him and Yang looking faintly annoyed at his violent response. Before he could recognize Ruby's attempt to hail him, however, a deafening roar came from the forest. A massive Ursa came stumbled out of the bushes, letting out a final, defiant cry before collapsing, dead. The odd, redheaded hammer girl was riding atop its back, carrying along a trembling boy in green clearly born in Mistral. That must've been who she was waiting for in the first place. According to said Mistralian human's request for her to never do that again, her name was Nora.

And according to Nora's sheepish reply when he shouted at her for just running off, her partner's name was Ren. Nora didn't care much for Ren's yelling, however, for she'd bounced back to giddy glee and darted off to grab one of the relics—chess pieces, it seemed—and loudly proclaim herself 'queen of the castle'.

Adam pointed back at Vomit Boy with his thumb. "Does anyone know how he got here in the first place?" Not even a second after the words left his mouth, a scorpion Grimm so ancient that its scarred and pockmarked plate had begun to accrue moss and grass bowled over the trees surrounding the forest temple, scuttling towards the more immediately familiar figure of Pyrrha Nikos. She dived and jumped between pincers that were easily twice her size. Even such a legend in the arena, however, was not a match for a creature as ancient as this Death Stalker.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out towards the boy, who wriggled all the harder to try and escape his embarrassing predicament.

Yang opened her mouth to speak.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted back. Taking some pity on him, Adam sliced away the branch Jaune was hanging on as he leaped away. Adam landed on his feet. Jaune landed on his face. He cracked a smile that betrayed his growing annoyance with all the yelling.

Yang, agitated, tried once more to say something.

"Adam!" Being screamed from the heiress still clinging onto the Nevermore circling in the skies.

"Uh, Yang? Problem!" Ruby started tapping at Yang's shoulder insistently and pointing back up the sky, not noticing just how angry her sister was getting by the second. Adam was no better: these humans were just so _loud!_

"Nora!" Nora shouted happily.

**"** **Enough!"** Adam roared loud enough to get even the Death Stalker's attention. Coincidentally, it was also the last straw for Yang, who picked up right where he left off:

"Can't you all stay quiet for two seconds before something _else_ crazy happens?!" Her demand was made all the more compelling by the flames that burst to life around her. She got her wish: about two seconds of quiet.

"Adam! How could you just leave me up here?!" shouted the Schnee in disbelief as she clung on to the Nevermore's sharp talon and slipped further and further off by the second. While everyone else's eyes were aimed at the skies, Adam strolled over towards the temple.

"Quite easily!" he called behind his shoulder as he picked up a golden knight. Unorthodox, yet powerful and easy to be underestimated, much like the faunus themselves.

"She's gonna fall," Yang pointed out to Adam with some agitation at his callousness. Adam glanced over his shoulder, did a quick appraisal of the Schnee's condition, then waved his hand dismissively and looked back at his chess piece.

"She'll be fine. Maybe."

"Aaand she's falling." Ren said with no worry at all in his voice. Maybe he wasn't alone on this dislike of the Schnee after all, Adam wondered. Jaune suddenly scrambled up to his feet and stumbled forward looking for the falling heiress. Since his eyes were occupied with the ground, however, he didn't know her exact location.

Weiss landed on Jaune's back. Jaune landed on his face. Again. It was around the time that Pyrrha was sent flying into the dirt right next to him that the group remembered there was a very angry, very large Death Stalker currently hunting them.

"Great, the gang's all here! Now, we can die together!" Yang proclaimed with far more glee than this situation warranted.

Adam snorted. "Or, we can fight. We outnumber it eight to one." The Nevermore screeched. "Four to one," Adam amended as if that was meaningless.

To him, it was, anyway: even for a bunch of first years, it would be an arduous task but one that could be achieved with only the chance of a fatality. With a prodigy such as Pyrrha Nikos and a Huntsman-level fighter like himself, that would turn 'chance of a fatality' into 'chance of casualties'. More than acceptable for this environment. Much more important to Adam, however, were two things:

One, he loved showing off.

Two, he loved a dramatic battle.

Nora and Ruby seemed to recognize such a thing, at least, the latter all but jumping at the bit to get a swing at the gigantic Grimm. The other students... not so much.

"I don't know, Adam, I wouldn't want any of us getting hurt..." Yang offered as protest, but, from the way she subtly moved in front of Ruby, it was clear she meant that she didn't want her _sister_ getting hurt. Ruby, however, had other plans. She must've noticed her sister trying to defend her, too, for, with a pout and steeling of her eyes, she nudged past her.

"He's right, though! We can totally take it on! I've fought worse!" She reminded him a lot of Blake when she was younger: brash, hardheaded, getting into trouble all the time...

"Oh, really? When?" Yang crossed her arms.

"Uh, guys, it's getting closer..." Jaune mumbled.

"All the more reason to attack now!" Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and grinned. "I'm going in!"

"Ruby, that thing might really hurt you!"

"I'd like to see it _try!_ " With a 'battle cry' more befitting a kitten—and Adam should know—Ruby took off for the scorpion Grimm alone, firing from her sniper rifle-scythe for extra speed. It was all for naught: if Pyrrha Nikos couldn't challenge it alone, Ruby didn't stand a chance. One swing of its mighty pincer, and Ruby was smashed right into the ground by the Death Stalker's mighty pincer, just like Pyrrha was. She groaned and pushed herself back to her feet, panting already: it must have knocked the wind right out of her.

"D-don't worry! Totally fine!" As a testament to how little a threat the Death Stalker saw her as, it only crept forward, curiously chattering at her. Ruby gasped as she turned to find it only a few inches away from its face. She made the mistake of opening fire on the beast, but the shell didn't even mark its heavily armored exoskeleton. Adam could see the panic start to set in: not just in her eyes, but in those of her sister. Yang ran after her.

Perhaps she would have made it, if the fear of losing a loved one hadn't drawn the Nevermore's attention. One flap of its wings, and what was once a straight and clear path for both Yang and Ruby to run to each other became a maze of giant feathers as sharp as blades and thick as streetlights. One caught Ruby's cloak, pinning her in place. A second struck Yang, blowing her right back to where she started. Waiting for this moment, the Death Stalker grew closer. All the while, the group only watched, some in horror, Adam, in disinterest.

He briefly noticed the Schnee glare back at them all before readying her blade, but his focus was on the carnage about to play out. This was not his business. Saving humans simply was not something he felt he needed to do: surely, Beacon expected casualties.

His grip on Wilt and Blush subconsciously tightened. That desire to just dive into her job, Ruby's utter naivety and willingness to prove herself at any and every opportunity, however, all kept digging up memories of Blake when they were younger. Happier. When she needed someone to watch out for her, so that she wouldn't go and hurt herself in the cruel world. Old instincts Adam thought were long dead began to resurface.

Frightened, silver eyes looked back at him. All Adam could see was startled, pleading amber.

Black and white traveled past Yang in a blur.

The Death Stalker's stinger fell.

Ruby closed her eyes.

* * *

Ozpin smiled. "Do you see now, Glynda? It's said that to even have an aura, a soul must have yin and yang. Light and dark."

* * *

Death did not come. Ruby dared to peek an eye open, and the world rushed back to her: the Death Stalker thrashed to and fro, screeching in pain and flailing its now-stingerless tail in a frenzy. It tried to lunge at them, yet a wall of ice was encasing its pincer, locking it in place.

Adam flicked the black ichor from his blade and sheathed it. The detached stinger laid embedded in the ground ahead of him.

Weiss pulled her rapier up from her stark-white glyph that surrounded the ice pinning the Death Stalker in place.

* * *

"Black and white."


	3. A Long Year

**A Long Year**

* * *

"You really are childish," Weiss chastised Ruby as she flicked the dirt from her rapier.

"Utterly foolish," Adam added. Whereas Weiss was loud and emotional, Adam's words were dry and stoic as he kept an eye on the trapped Grimm.

"Dimwitted!" Weiss continued. Ruby, however, was pretty sure she saw relief in her eyes. She kept her hood down to look guilty and hide the smile on her face: their words were harsh, but, that sounded like two new best friends to her!

"Shortsighted." Adam adjusted his hat, trying his hardest to make sure that Ruby couldn't see the relief on his own face.

"Honestly, what would you have done without us?" Weiss leaned down to be eye level with Ruby. Suddenly, she had to wipe that smile off of her face in an instant, left stuttering with an embarrassed blush and her gaze darting to everywhere except for the heiress in front of her.

"I-I, well, uh..." Ruby couldn't get another word out before she was smothered in a bear hug from Yang, leaving her words little more than muffled.

She shot a glare over her little sister's shoulder at the two. "Hey, lay off, would you! She nearly died!"

Weiss huffed, crossed her arms and stalked off, Adam following suit. "Ungrateful brute," she muttered. Ruby managed to lift her head up and mumble a tiny thanks. With Weiss gone, however, Yang turned her glare down at her little sister, and that crushing hug of hers suddenly became a lot less friendly.

"So, just what were ya thinking there, Rubes? Showing off?" Her pleasant tone was betrayed by her burning, red eyes.

Ruby chuckled nervously and—unsuccessfully—tried to wriggle out of the death grip. "It wasn't showing off! I just..." she sighed. "I wanted to show you that I didn't need to be protected."

"Yeah, good job on that, sis." Yang tussled Ruby's hair, earning a pouty whine from her. "Besides, you could be the strongest Huntress in the world and I'd still be worried about you: you're my little sister!" She squeezed Ruby one more time and jogged back to the group. Ruby might not have been entirely sure they believed in her, just yet, but, her fears were alleviated.

* * *

By the time they'd returned to the rest of the group, a problem was already beginning to surface. "So... what're we going to do? That thing is circling around, again!" Jaune asked and waved up at the Nevermore circling above: it looked like it was waiting for another time to strike. It was intelligent, and that didn't bode well.

"Well, our last attempts at fighting them went oh-so-well," Weiss said, "so, just maybe, we should try a different strategy: we all have our pieces, don't we? Let's just go!" she suggested. Ruby, Nora and Adam held up their relics. Jaune looked hurriedly between them and then zipped off to grab one for himself and Pyrrha.

"She's right," Ruby agreed, "our mission is to take the artifact and get back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting the Grimm, here." Ruby put it in less... bossy terms to the other half of their now eight-man team. Adam silently nodded in agreement, and Yang clapped a hand on her sister's shoulder, beaming with pride.

"Let's go, then!" Yang cheered and with Ruby at her side, the two led the rest of the team forward. Weiss and Adam remained a few steps behind, both unknowingly sharing the same thought: it was rather odd, being ordered by a fifteen year old and her sister.

"By the way, I had that handled." Weiss shot at Adam.

He scoffed. "I didn't know 'handled' meant a second away from one of you being killed."

* * *

The site the relics were on was only the beginning of the absolutely massive complex the temple took up. Even after minutes of running, the ruins of ancient buildings walled them in on both sides and left trees as their only cover, and by the time they reached the foggy cliffs themselves, the trees had just run out. Always visible if only as a stretching shadow on the ground, the Nevermore followed above them, then soared high into the air and perched itself atop a grand tower. Multiple stories high, this must have been the _true_ temple.

It screeched out a challenge that shook the trees. The way ahead was now neatly cut off.

"Hmph. So much for not fighting the Grimm," the Schnee grumbled. Adam gained a wide smirk just as the forest behind them exploded into black and white: the Death Stalker was back. With a snort and shake of her head, the heiress readied her rapier. "Of course _you_ would enjoy this." She said with faint disdain, even though the edge of her mouth curled up.

"Don't think I can't see that smile of yours," Adam said.

Caught red-handed, the Schnee turned away.

A Nevermore resting atop a foggy temple stretching towards the heavens above and the abyss below on one side, and a vengeful Death Stalker was running at them from the other. No escape, no retreat, only victory and defeat.

Oh, how he loved a dramatic battle.

"Go!" Ruby shouted.

Nora transformed her warhammer into a grenade launcher, and brought down explosive covering fire while the teams ran towards the temple, hoping to make it to the stone bridge connecting their cliff to the rest of the complex before the Death Stalker could reach them. Unfortunately, she was too busy shooting at the Nevermore to remember that there was a Death Stalker running right for her. Ren leaped in its path, but, neither as fast as Ruby nor as tough as Pyrrha, he was knocked into his partner with one swipe of its pincer, bowling them both over. If it were up to Adam, he would have left them there: even if they died to it, six versus a Nevermore and a wounded Death Stalker was still good odds.

Unfortunately, Weiss leaped forward to pull Nora out on one of her glyphs. Adam had no choice but to follow suit, flashing forward to grab Ren and back to the cliff in the blink of an eye. The only thing connecting them to the temple the Nevermore stood perched on was a long, ancient bridge of stone down a flight of steps. The others were racing along it, with more than enough room to fit three of them side by side.

Adam unceremoniously pulled Ren to his feet and pushed him towards it. "Start moving," he ordered. He steadied his hand and slowly marched backwards down the steps. The Grimm advanced. An ancient Death Stalker with minor wounds while he had to attempt to not make the full extent of his skills known. Were his specialty not swiftness and single strikes, this would be a nigh-impossible battle to face alone.

Adam grinned. Unfortunately for the Death Stalker, it was. "Keep going!" he shouted behind him. "I'll hold it back until you can get a position for fire support!"

"As if I'd let you get all the credit." The Schnee came up to his side, rapier forward and eyes hardened. Adam scowled. Right. He'd forgotten about the little princess. That didn't excuse the fact that he had given an order! Adam turned to shout her down when a chunk of the bridge behind them exploded: he'd forgotten about the Nevermore, as well. Even under withering gunfire it was able to cut off their way of escape by ramming right into the path itself. Now, it was himself and the Schnee on one side, and the other six battling the Nevermore.

Good odds.

Just as the pieces of the bridge crumbled away, the Death Stalker lunged onto the stairs and slammed its pincer between the two, separating them when they dodged. The Grimm was waiting for that. They were cooperating.

Not-so-good odds.

The Death Stalker's eyes focused on him. There was a gleam of recognition in its eyes and, with far more speed than anything of its size should have, it swung its claw at him.

Decidedly not great odds.

Adam rolled back and punished it with a lightning-fast swipe at its joint, causing the Death Stalker to screech and skitter backwards. Even on the backfoot, however, with its speed and heavy armor, it was able to fend off the attacks of he and the Schnee both, returning every bolt of Dust or stab of a blade with a jab carrying the force of a train.

From the other side of the gap, Ruby turned away from the Nevermore to watch the other battle unfold. She spun Crescent Rose and aimed it behind herself. "We've gotta help them!" she called to Yang.

"... Do we have to?"

"Yaaang!"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" With a shot from Ruby's scythe and a shotgun blast from Yang's gauntlets, the two easily made it over the gap and just in front of Adam and Weiss. The latter stumbled and found herself firing an errant ray of fiery Dust for a second time, that day.

"I _told_ you all to stay back! Go!" Adam shouted.

"We have this perfectly handled!" The heiress punctuated her claim by raising a glyph and blocking another swing of the Grimm's mighty pincer.

"... Actually, help would be appreciated!" Adam immediately contradicted the Schnee, causing her to look in his direction in abject confusion. Thoughts and questions on how he was literally just ordering them to leave swam in her head and fell away just as quickly when she noticed the slim smirk on his face. He'd done it solely just to spite her. With a huff, the heiress went off to prove herself right on her own, rushing past Ruby and colliding rapier-first with the next strike the Grimm tried to make. Its claw didn't make her budge an inch, only serving to form a crack in its own plate.

Ruby and Yang glanced between one another: maybe Weiss was telling the truth, after all. It certainly didn't hurt that theory when the Death Stalker unleashed a torrent of acidic ichor from its torn tail at Adam in a surprise attack that should have caught any of them off-guard, but Adam only flipped out of the way, landing on Weiss' side of the bridge.

"Oookay, I guess we'll take the left, then!" Ruby spun her scythe in a flashy whirl of crimson, slammed it down into the bridge and opened fire on the Grimm's massive mask. Yang followed suit, leaving eruptions of light and fire bursting to life all across the Grimm. Combined with Weiss raining down rays of ice-blue Dust and Adam lashing out with waves of crimson following every swipe, the Grimm was swiftly obscured by a shroud of fog and smoke both. The shroud was still.

"Alright, good work, girls—and Adam! Come on, let's go make sure Jaune and the others are—" Ruby's cheers and new orders were abruptly silenced by the mist exploding into action that nearly threw Adam off the bridge in an instant. Left gripping onto the bridge's edge with one hand, he swung the other over and struggled to pull himself back up just as the Grimm stormed through the fog to finish them off.

(Un)fortuntely, the Schnee brought up a forcefield of Dust strong enough to protect her from an errant swipe of its tail, only pushing her back to the edge with the rest of the four. Only a single crack was on its face: their attacks weren't getting through at all.

"None of this is working," Adam stated the obvious. "Aim for a mobility kill, start targeting its—"

"I've got a plan!" Ruby shouted over him as the Death Stalker swiped not at them, but the base of the bridge itself. One blow was all it took to make it crack. She looked at him and nodded to the Grimm as it rose its other pincer high. Adam gritted his teeth, agitated at being so quickly ignored, but he had no choice but to move: no one else besides her was quick enough to. One step and he was sliding across the bridge to intercept the next strike from the Death Stalker on his half-drawn blade. It took a significant amount of aura to keep himself on the bridge, and even more to repulse the claw in time to slash down its other.

The next thing Adam saw was Ruby soaring through the air shouting with rage... and with her weapon folded up on her back. The first word of his complaint hadn't even left his mouth before the Death Stalker whacked her with its tail, and her battle cry turned into a yelp as she was left clutched onto it for dear life. That fool! He sheathed his blade and prepared to cut the stinger down even shorter when Ruby called out behind her:

"Yang, now!" Propelled by one of the Schnee's glyphs and her shotgun gauntlets both, Yang nearly threw Adam to the ground by jumping off of his back. She reached her peak, fired her gauntlets behind her once more, and came back down on the Grimm's head fist-first. With a mighty roar, the Death Stalker recoiled and whipped its tail back with tremendous force.

Ruby let go, and was off like a crimson comet.

"I would have preferred some warning!" Adam shouted. Supported by bolts of ice Dust from the Schnee, Adam slashed at the claws trying to grab at Yang as she punched away, but, to no avail: one finally found purchase and threw her into the bridge hard enough to crack it. She flipped herself up with a confident smirk, not a hair out of place.

"Sorry, bud! A Ruby Plan doesn't have time for those!" Yang blasted the Death Stalker's claw away from the bridge once more. Enraged, it spat another stream of ichor from its stinger only to have it deflected by a glowing glyph.

"What _is_ her plan, anyway!" Weiss called.

* * *

Where was it, where was it, where was it! Flying over the treetops and propelled by shots of her Crescent Rose, Ruby scanned the landscape for the key to her entire plan. There it was!

Embedded in the ground and surrounded by shards of melting ice was the glowing tip of the Death Stalker's stinger. Channeling all her aura into her upper body, she fired herself forward and swung her scythe into it with all her might. The jarring impact nearly threw her scythe away, but Ruby pressed on and put all of her momentum into a mighty twist that dragged the stinger out of the ground. She spun, released her blade so it could fold back, and hurled the stinger high into the skies with all the force she was once traveling.

Alright! Easy part done! And now for the... much more tiring part. With all of that speed and momentum thrown into the stinger, Ruby had to put her semblance to work to keep up, and was soon little more than a long trail of red painted onto the air itself darting between trees.

* * *

"This! Adam, gimme a lift!" Yang suddenly called and jumped towards him. Having been in a military unit, Adam's body had already moved before he could even think on why: he brought his sheathed blade up and the second Yang dropped her foot onto the hilt, fired Wilt and sent all that energy into Yang. Adding her own shotgun gauntlets into the mix, she was sent flying up into the skies towards some glowing object spinning in the air. Instinct told him he needed to move at the same time he realized it was the Death Stalker's stinger. Snatching Wilt from the air, he backflipped over a barrage of gleaming rays of Dust-borne energy aimed right for the Grimm's deadly pincers. When they struck, however, they did not deal any damage to the being; instead, they formed massive, glowing rings that locked it in place.

With all the force—and noise, for that matter—of a bomb, Yang hammered the stinger down into the Death Stalker's head at the peak of her jump. With nowhere to go and no way to move, it could only screech in rage as its armored head nearly buckled shattered from the force. Unfortunately, the destruction spread to the bridge, as well: deep cracks webbed across its entirety. The bridge was on its last legs.

Above, the crimson comet returned, unfurling when it passed Yang in midair for a high-five before the two struck the ground: Yang in safety behind the Death Stalker, and Ruby skidding to a halt right beside him and the Schnee. Panting, the heiress pressed the tip of her rapier towards the ground, lighting up the crumbling path with glyphs just as the Death Stalker shattered its bonds. A final, massive one in black formed itself just behind the Grimm, and Adam could feel its pull.

He looked towards the freed, furious and certainly still dangerous Grimm, then turned to Weiss. "Ladies first," he said with a bow. The Schnee didn't even look at him, instead turning the cylinder on her weapon until it began to glow red. Smirking, she let the glyphs take her away, those on the ground speeding her up until she was only a white blur. The explosive impact not only pierced through the Death Stalker's head entirely, but destroyed its faceplate in an blast of flame and, using her rapier as leverage, the Schnee flipped herself onto a glyph and flew back towards Yang.

Ruby was next, barely visible moving even to Adam: one second the girl was there and the next, her scythe, turning straight and into a true polearm, had run the Death Stalker's head almost all the way through. She curled up around her weapon, folded it back into a scythe, and with a last wave to Adam, fired herself off to safety as well.

Pieces broke away from the bridge and fell into the mist until the only signs entire sections even existed were the glyphs hovering over them. Adam let out a huff: surprised as he was at how devastating those three girls could be, it didn't make it any less annoyed to be left with scraps. How cruel. However, that didn't mean he couldn't make it flashy! Pushing all of his aura into his blade and his own natural speed, Adam crouched down, slowly unsheathed his blade—

The world turned red, and Adam was silhouetted on the other side, blade still trailing black from where it'd cut entirely through the weakened Grimm. He whipped the dark ichor away and slowly began to sheathe his blade once more, not as much seeing as _feeling_ the wound across the Death Stalker's form glow and burn away into his signature wilting flowers.

Yang whistled. "Well, that was a thing!" Wilt locked itself in place with a satisfying _click_ , and, just on time, a veritable geyser of rose petals burst out from the scorpion's mortal wounds, some fluttering and scattering in the breeze, others soon turning black and falling into the mist. The bridge fully collapsed with it, and the world regained its color.

"And I thought Ruby was the show-off." The Schnee just had to ruin it for him.

"The art of dramatic timing is no laughing matter," Adam huffed. He'd spent months of training and gathering experience just to perfect it! Indulgent? Yes. Wasteful? Yes. Worth it? _Absolutely._ But, he supposed, not everyone could appreciate the fine arts.

Adam sighed and turned to face the rest of what he supposed he could temporarily call his 'team'. The three looked more... shocked, than anything, that they had even won the battle in the first place. And with barely a scratch. Basking in the glow of victory, the group had briefly even forgotten that there was a second battle raging just behind them. Ruby finally broke the silence by clearing her throat and asking:

"Soooo, uh... should we go help Jaune and his friends?" As if to answer her, a great peal of thunder erupted form above, and the ancient Nevermore was sent crashing through the entirety of the temple tower like it were made of plywood. Nora's cackling filled the air shortly after.

"They'll be fine," the Schnee dryly replied.

Adam supposed it could be worse.

* * *

He was wrong.

He was _so_ wrong.

Without the adrenaline and anger guiding him, reality was crashing down on Adam like a bucket of ice-cold water. He stared blankly up at the ceiling, moonlight slipping through the curtains into his dormitory. His dorm shared with a Schnee, the boisterous blonde, and her—as he quickly learned—fifteen year old sister. Who was now the leader of Team Rua, or 'Team RWAY'.

What was Ozpin thinking? He was more trained than even the Schnee! He'd personally helped save her life! Even according to his transcripts, he was _four years_ Ruby's elder! Without it, he'd been a major, a leader of an entire terrorist cell that struck fear into the hearts of countless humans. Now, one of those very humans commanded him? Adam Taurus, former leader and founded of the entire Vale branch of the White Fang?!

And the worst part? The worst part of it all? He was certain that when he looked at Ozpin on that stage, he was smirking at him.

The Schnee sighed softly and shifted in her sleep. Nevermind. New worst part: remembering that he was in the same room as a Schnee. He could hear her breathing, hear the slight fidgeting in the cold night, and know she was not just alive, but would continue to be. It was his job, now, to protect her, when it was his duty to strangle her in her sleep. His lieutenant would kill him right then and there for letting that Schnee take even a single calm breath near him.

Right now, Adam felt like he would gladly refuel and rev up that chainsaw of his for him.

His entire livelihood was given up for this: under the command of a fifteen year old so he could protect a Schnee, desperately trying to grasp at sleep held just out of his reach, no doubt brought ever higher by Yang's soft snoring or Ruby's occasional mumbling of sweets and family under her breath that were spaced out by minutes, yet in this tumultuous time felt incessant. What had Blake talked him into?

Speaking of which, the fact that Blake once again could not be reached left himself as the only person he could complain to. So, childish as it was, he did the only thing he could think of: Adam pressed his pillow against his face and tried not to scream himself to sleep. To an outsider, the room was almost completely silent. To Adam, it was a deafening choir. Simmering in his own hate, he fell into a restless sleep, listening to that choir sing to him of how this stood against everything he'd ever fought for.

Yet, why could he not bring himself to do anything about it?

Never did he notice Weiss curl up just a little tighter beneath the covers on the other side of the room. Such silent contempt did not escape her notice: she had suffocated from it at that dreaded home of hers for years. Ozpin claimed it would be an interesting year. Right. As far as Weiss was concerned, this was just like home sweet home, nothing 'interesting' about it. She'd come here to escape that frozen prison. To escape the loneliness. Weiss scowled.

Why did she ever think this place would be different?

* * *

The shattered Moon lingered high in the night sky as renowned crime lord Roman Torchwick looked over his maps of Vale in the safety of a warehouse. Each shelf laid empty, but clean, waiting for the day it'd be full to the breaking point. Right now, however, only a few sparse shelves were full of various crates and boxes, each carrying a deadly payload: Dust.

In truth, this was a significant part of the civilian market. Roman, however, wasn't pleased. It wasn't nearly enough, and that was a problem. On his map laid many shops that sold Dust. Almost all of them were crossed out: a target hit, or too hot to ever return to. The market was collapsing. As his new 'boss' would put it, 'just as planned.'

Just as planned. Roman scoffed and lit himself a cigar. What a load. Try as this mysterious 'Cinder Fall' might, he knew what she really wanted: the ten crystals laid out in front of him as paperweights. Yellow Dust and purple Dust, and not just any kind of yellow Dust, only the most _pure_ of them. Crystals pure enough to perform time dilation. He was no scientist, but, any experiment that needed to control time and space was one he didn't want near him.

Unsurprisingly, such reasons were just some of many why all of these small time shops were useless. No mom and pop store was going to sell Huntsmen-grade Dust crystals en masse, it was ludicrous! This Cinder Fall wouldn't know a good plan if it bit her!

And speaking of things that bite, Roman thought as the door behind him squealed from opening, here comes his next delivery!

"Took you animals long enough," Torchwick growled as he turned... then paused. Standing behind his latest Dust acquisitions wasn't the scrawny animal he was waiting for. No, this man was absolutely gigantic, with tattoos crawling across biceps that could pin an Ursa down with ease. His entire face was covered by an intricate mask bordering on being a helmet.

"... Who are you?"

"Edward Almond." His voice rumbled through the warehouse like rolling boulders. "Former White Fang Lieutenant." The moonlight glinted off of a massive chainsaw tied to his back.

"There's been a change of management."


	4. 0-0

**0-0**

* * *

Someone was sneaking around. Adam's eyes snapped open. He rose, already flinging the covers off of himself, ready to strike down whatever was coming for them before his mind could even catch up. He prepared to snarl out either a curse of these humans or a demand for assistance when a hand slapped itself over his mouth.

"Shh!" Spotting Yang's golden mane and spotting no gauntlet on the hand covering his mouth was what saved her arm. Adam slapped her hand away from him with Wilt, earning a concerned, faintly amused look from the girl. Before he could question her look or complain about her actions, however, Yang jabbed a thumb behind her towards Ruby.

... Who was sneaking up on the slumbering Schnee, a whistle in her hand and a devious gleam in her eye. He kept his glare on Yang. By all means, he could've stopped the girl from scaring the Schnee. He probably could've even saved himself the headache such a sharp noise would undoubtedly cause, too. But he didn't. As the heiress managed to scream, throw herself off the bed and land flat on her back in an instant, Adam confirmed that the whistle-induced headache was absolutely worth it.

"Gooood morning, Team RWAY!" Ruby's voice added to the Schnee's annoyance and Adam's headache. Still worth it.

* * *

The decision to 'decorate' the room while the sun was barely above the horizon was one mostly made by Ruby and Yang. Even the Schnee, however, had gotten into changing the room to her desires. Adam's decorations was different. It'd taken a half-hour of shuffling and minute movements, but he'd finally gotten one of the desks just how he had it in the White Fang. Were his mask not in the bottom of his bag, he would have known the place it would have sat to the inch.

When he'd finally turned around and acknowledged the rest of his team's existence, he'd wished he hadn't.

It was like there was a line drawn in the room: there was his bed and his desk clean and in a corner, and then there was... the rest. Gaudy paintings and crooked posters now adorned the walls, a curtain was thrown up and accidentally cut in half by Ruby, and at some point the girls had managed to pile their beds on top of one another to try and paradoxically clear space.

"This isn't going to work," Adam and Weiss both stated. He grimaced at sharing the same thought process as a Schnee and the glare she shot him didn't help his agitation.

"Maybe we could ditch some of our stuff?" Yang suggested.

"I'm sure Schnee has brought enough to fill a room of her own," Adam added.

The Schnee crinkled her nose in disdain. "Any ideas that _don't_ involve throwing away my things?"

Ruby perked up, seemingly just ignoring the heiress' words entirely to throw out her suggestion of, "Bunk beds!"

Wow. Adam was faintly surprised he didn't think of that, himself, considering his military background. Wait, no, he wasn't, because, "Where, exactly, are we going to get the materials for that right before class?"

Ruby just looked at Adam like he was stupid. "We've got everything right here, duh!" She waved her arms excitedly. "Come on, it'll be easy!"

"Obviously," the Schnee interrupted before he could refuse, "he sees how silly and dangerous this would be. You agree with me, right, Adam?"

Agreeing with a Schnee.

Really, she brought this entirely on herself.

"This can theoretically be worked out," Was Adam's non-agreement with either of them. Two yay, one nay, one abstain. Bunk beds, it was, then. The Schnee threw her hands up in exasperation. Instead of helping like in a good democracy, she decided to storm off under the excuse of getting ready for school. Leaving her bed unprotected was a poor idea: Adam now had all the time in the world to cut off the tops and bottoms of her bedposts, leaving it laying flat on the ground, and using them to build up his own. Having been on the streets and in a terrorist cell built up good carpentry skills: he'd had his bed built in record time.

Just enough time, in fact, for him to also notice that the time for school—his mind still groaned at the thought—was rapidly approaching. As the three were piling out of the door, the Schnee had just arrived, staring past them and into the room with a look of horror. Her eyes traveled from the serviceable bunk bed on the right to Ruby's bunk bed on the left.

Well, he called it a bunk bed, but really it was more of a prototype execution device for the poor sap stuck on the shortened bed beneath it, hung up on rope duct taped and nailed to the ceiling without a single part of it or its supports touching the ground. A death trap, plain and simple.

"Oh, by the way, dibs on the other top bunk," Yang said as she passed by her.

"H-hey! Shouldn't we..." She racked her brain for an excuse. "Sleep on the same side as our partners..." The Schnee's voice slowly died out into a mumble: she couldn't even say that with a straight face.

"Probably, but, I don't want to wake up with one of you strangling the other," Yang explained as Adam walked by, smirking and mocking her with his eyes alone. The heiress pouted in the doorway trying to come up with anything that'd let her get one of the better beds besides outright just stealing it at night, but to no avail.

"Don't worry, Weiss!" Ruby threw an arm around her shoulder. "My bed's one hundred percent super safe!" A piece of tape fell from the bed. It creaked ominously.

Weiss whimpered.

* * *

The Schnee had, unfortunately, regained her composure by the time they were walking down Beacon's wide pavilion. Fortunately, even as she tried to stomp away from her teammates, being shorter than Ruby without the help of her heels left her gait just a little too short to truly lose them. That probably explained her worsening mood, too. Wonderful, Adam thought!

"Soo," Yang stepped closer to him, a devious grin on her face, "you sleep cuddled up with your weapon at night too, huh?"

Adam turned a glare down at her and snorted, not even bothering to justify that with an answer.

"Ha, see! I told you it wasn't weird!" Ruby, however, appeared to take that as one, all but skipping beside her sister. "It's the mark of someone who actually cares about their weapon!"

"It's the mark of a weirdo."

"It's for _security,_ " Adam half-growled, hoping it would shut the two up.

"Oh, sort of like your hat, then?" Yang asked with a smirk. Adam couldn't hide his flinch; he'd been keeping his hat a lot closer than reasonable for a normal person. He hadn't been wearing it to sleep—that'd be ludicrous, even for him—but it laying on his head at least masked his horns. It still looked a bit weird, though. Adam didn't need another reminder of needing to hide his heritage, whether or not it was for their own sake.

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Snarling, Adam strode further forward, passing the Schnee.

As he stormed off, he could hear Yang's teasing voice. Yet, it wasn't aimed at him. "Uh-oh sis, looks like you sped out of the door so fast you forgot your cloak! I can barely even recognize you!"

"I didn't forget it, I just... don't need to stick out _that_ much. Remember: normal knees!" Their voices faded, shoved out of Adam's mind as he stormed towards the classes. Along his way, he caught the gaze of 'Headmaster' Ozpin and his assistant. Whereas Ozpin offered a soft smile and raise of his mug even in the face of his agitation, Goodwitch managed to eclipse even his hidden fury with her glare. Adam scoffed and turned away. This was his headmaster. His assistant headmaster. Watching him and his gaggle of teenage girls on the way to class.

His mind already churned with ways to pay Blake back for this. There was nothing about this that was worth it.

* * *

As Adam watched Weiss nearly get bulldozed by a Boarbatusk—one who was kept in captivity away from negativity, no less—he decided that this absolutely was worth it. It helped that he was in the class of the prestigious Professor Port: he had never met the man, himself, but he had heard talk of his charity towards faunuskind in the aftermath of the Faunus War. Shame no one else seemed to respect such dramatic greatness. However, the extent of such kindness towards his kind was put into question by their work here: why would they work under the very institutions that help oppress the faunus?

His internal debate on the loyalty of these professors to the faunus continued even after class until it was interrupted by the increasingly familiar and increasingly annoying shrill whine of a certain Schnee nearby. Irritated that she was not the leader, it seemed she'd taken it upon herself to take it out on Ruby. In truth, he, himself, still did not have much trust in a fifteen year old still so innocent to lead them all.

He might've recalled the stresses of what little leadership he'd held near her age, but squabbling over what scraps of power they could hold over one another was a distinctly human matter.

"Frankly, I deserve better!" The Schnee's voice echoed as he turned to leave. "Ozpin made a mistake."

... But, he also didn't want to leave that Schnee with the last word. Such was the reason Adam told himself, anyway, as he silently strode towards them. Unfortunately, by the time he'd reached Ruby, the Schnee was already walking away with her nose held high. He scowled.

"The only thing that girl deserves is a muzzle." The girl practically leaped out of her skin and spun to face him, but tried to brush it off with a nervous laugh.

"U-uh-huh, yeah... real jerk..." Ruby forced a smile, though it quickly faded under Adam's judging gaze. She could barely bring her eyes up to his. She was fidgeting. Ringing her hands. Were her eyes watering? Heavens, it was worse than he thought. Adam ignored the needle trying to worm its way into his heart at seeing this... child brought so low already, opting instead for a deeper frown.

If it was any of his soldiers, he'd have given them a clap on the shoulder, a nod of understanding and an order to suck it up: they're better than that. But, this was different than facing down a soldier afraid to put on a mask. This wasn't the White Fang, Adam told himself. She wasn't training to be a killer, Adam told himself. Anything to ignore how he could recall amber eyes staring up at him in the same, lost way. Purpose without guidance.

The needle turned into a dagger and, unaware of the awkward, tense silence he'd left behind, Adam let out a great sigh at the same time Ruby did.

"Look, I-I know you don't like me, either, but—"

 _"Enough."_ It was just too much. Adam turned away. "A leader must be ready to defend their position if they want to keep it, no matter the cost. There's enough trouble with Schnee questioning your authority; don't add yourself to that list of opponents."

Ruby paused. "Are... _you_ on that list, too?"

"... That remains to be seen." Adam looked back towards her. He wished he hadn't. The resemblance was only stronger, now: that desire for warmth and acceptance, the fear of being seen as useless, all too similar to how Blake once was. The innocence held, however, was lost because of him, Adam's conscience so frustratingly reminded him. Those damned instincts were once more starting to dig their way out of the hole he buried them in years ago. Adam wanted to leave it at that, but faced with that instinct...

"It's only been one day." Ruby beamed. "Some immaturity aside," Ruby's smile faded, "you have been... adequate." And returned even brighter than before. Adam opened his mouth to speak again, but, with a now giddy grin, Ruby leaped over to hug him. Adam cringed at the sudden close contact, eyes darting around for any form of escape from this situation.

"Aha! I knew you believed in me!" His grimace threatened to turn into a scowl, but Adam was able to gather himself and wriggle away from her.

"Simply... keep this in mind: if you do not want to be questioned, give them nothing _to_ question." With that, Adam finally walked away. He had a distinct feeling that more times would come when he would need to tell himself that his help to Ruby was only to defeat the Schnee's want for power. Exactly how long he could fool himself, however, Adam did not know.

Out of sight and out of mind, Ozpin sipped at his mug with a content smile. He'd made many mistakes in his life. Team RWAY was not one of them.

Yet, lurking behind a corner and watching in on their conversation, Yang disagreed. It had only been a day, and she was getting sick and tired of her own teammates brushing off Ruby like that, even if Ruby herself didn't seem to notice. Something needed to be done about this... and not only did she know just who to start with, but exactly how to do it.

* * *

Watching Jaune fight was amazing, in a way, Adam thought. Not because of any sort of skill on his part, oh no, in truth that made it plain sad at times, but just from... how much _punishment_ he could take. The second week in this school had come by and, with it, a number of combat classes. Adam preferred to stay out of it: not only did he not feel like potentially outing himself as far more powerful than he had let on, but, battles between the students seemed so droll. Lifeless. Perhaps it was the contained environment, the lack of change, or the campus being so afraid of a little bloodshed that they'd put rules in place to prevent combat after a student fell below fifteen percent of their effective aura, _twenty-five_ percent for some still too afraid.

It was coddling, at best, and what was the result? Jaune, who just got slapped across the face with an explosive-laden mace for the seventh time. With a little more training, that boy could stand with his lieutenant as the most tenacious he'd ever seen. Unfortunately, as Jaune clumsily swung his blade with all his might without so much as budging his foe, it was clear he lacked any of his lieutenant's strength. Finally, Goodwitch just had to call it right there. He hadn't landed a scratch on his opponent, Cardin. Even so, the sheer amount of effort left him panting.

Note to self: if he ever really needed to get rid of some stress, challenge Jaune to a duel.

"Alright! We still have some time remaining, are there any volunteers for the next sparring match?" Goodwitch offered to the students.

Yang's hand shot up like a rocket.

With an amused quirk of her eyebrow, Goodwitch motioned to her. "You've volunteered to be in this ring almost each day in the past week. I appreciate your enthusiasm, Miss Xiao Long, but after this match, I think we will be letting other students try their hand." She waved her crop. "Any volunteers?"

Only a couple raised their hands. They'd seen just how terrifying Yang was in the ring. Yang, however, wasn't interested in them. Instead, her lavender eyes were aimed directly at Adam. Then, so was her hand.

"I want to take him on."

Goodwitch's amusement swiftly vanished. "I am afraid intra-team fights are not preferred." She took solace, at least, in Adam looking unfazed. "Even so, a challenge requires both sides to agree."

"I'll do it." Adam rose up, and Goodwitch's stern stare turned into a frown.

"Come on, Miss Goodwitch! Just one? It'll be like... finding out our weaknesses so we can patch 'em up, later!" Yang pressed what little advantage she had.

Goodwitch shifted her jaw. This wasn't good, she thought. Not in the least. She could keep preventing him from taking to the arena even now, but, that would only raise questions. Worse, it might just push other students to challenge him... or for Xiao Long to do so outside of school. Heavens knew her parents' team did, and often. That left one choice.

"So be it." With a short sigh, she set up the battle in her Scroll. She would just have to keep a close eye on their aura levels, and a closer one on that... terrorist. Glynda had no lack of faith in her own abilities; she could afford herself a more lighthearted thought on exactly how she was going to tell Ozpin 'I told you so'.

Soon, their aura levels were displayed above the arena for the audience to see, and both Adam and Yang marched off to prepare.

* * *

"So, tell me, Yang," Adam began as they walked towards what was all but a stage, "what suddenly possessed you do make a foolish decision like this?"

Yang snorted. "Because I'm getting tired of you acting like you're all 'too cool for school'. You're no different from Weiss," she continued even through the withering glare Adam shot at her. "You both think you're so above it all: teammates, friends, even just talking! Look at you, even in this class—you know, the _fun_ one—you're always staring at everyone like you're some kind of instructor, yourself!" The two split before Adam could respond.

He burned with fury at her having the nerve to compare him to that Schnee in any way, but he kept it hidden deep inside, just like the rest of the hate he still felt for these humans. As they settled and the lights began to dim, Yang made her mission clear to him:

"It's about time that someone teaches you a lesson!" She slammed her fists together, loading the first shells into her gauntlets. "And I'm gonna be glad to be the one that does it!" How typical of a human: her pride or her honor was hurt by him brushing them off, so she resorts to trying to beat him like a dog, instead? Adam had no intentions of letting Yang get her way like this... but, he did not want to make his power apparent. No.

He knew exactly what he was going to do.

"Begin!"

The battle began not with a storm of gunfire or clashing of blades, but stark silence from both sides. They merely watched one another for any sign of weakness in a silent contest of wills. Yang, perhaps, believed that he would make the first move and hopefully leave himself open to counter. Adam raised his arm out to one side, Wilt's handle glinting dangerously. Yang's stance shifted.

Adam dropped his sword.

The crowd began muttering, no doubt seeing exactly what that disrespect was meant to be. And if _they_ could...

Yang's eyes widened, lilac turning to magenta, before she blasted herself towards him as quick as a car, her fist cocked back likely and carrying the force of many of them. Adam sidestepped the devastating strike, and the gold glow surrounding her hand did not escape his notice. She'd struck down more than one student in a single blow like that. Yang fired her gauntlets mid-flight, throwing her elbow up at his chin only for him to lean back out of the way. A golden glow surrounded her elbow, as well.

He had an idea. A strategy.

Yang landed and with yet another burst from Ember Celica, leaped into a flying knee. Golden glow. Adam twirled around this blow and threw his momentum into a roundhouse kick to the back of her head before she'd even landed. He had to give her credit: she recovered quick, rolling to her feet in a fluid motion and launching a barrage of shotgun blasts his way. Each was dodged with cold calculation, leaving him as only a black blur sliding between each burst.

Even so, all it took was being clipped once for him to stumble, forced to keep backpedaling. Even those pellets were filled to the brim with aura.

"Don't let him draw you in!" Ruby called from the audience, unseen but not unheard. "He's trying to make you waste your aura!"

Adam did not take his eyes off of Yang, but could catch her bar having slid from green to yellow already. She started to straighten her stance, listening, unlike the Schnee... right up until she spotted him hopping in place and throwing out taunting jabs in the air at her. Adam beckoned her forward, and the anger flooded into her eyes again.

All too easy, Adam thought, even as he narrowly avoided another shot with a tilt of his head. Yang was on him in an instant, forgoing pure power with speed and launching a lightning-fast series of jabs and crosses—well, fast for her, perhaps. Adam easily admitted to himself that each one of these swings would be devastating if she actually hit, but she was predictable and full of tells. She all but moved in slow motion to Adam, who swayed out of the way of or blocked every strike while only giving teasing little jabs at her chest and abdomen not meant to wound but infuriate.

Ah, of course only now, he would think of the perfect comeback to that condescending mission statement of hers. Adam hated when that happened.

He ducked under a gun-boosted roundhouse kick. Hopefully, he'd find a way to make that work.

The ground shook as Yang fired behind her in an attempt to shoulder-check Adam, but she stumbled: Adam was gone, as if he was never there. Yang twisted around to search for him.

Standing a few meters away, Adam teasingly bobbed his hands like a matador waving his cape.

... He was a bull faunus.

He was allowed to do that.

Ignoring the protests of her sister in the crowd, Yang took the bait, blasting forth and, rather than a simple shoulder check, throwing herself from side-to-side with careful shots until she got close enough for an uppercut. He vanished in a blur yet again. Yang spun in place, skidding across the arena floor. Her weight shifted dangerously. She glanced back; she'd almost fallen off the edge of the ring, altogether. Her eyes burned with heat and the roaring of the crowd was deafened by the blood rushing in her ears as she glared at Adam again. Rather, glared at his back, for he was strolling away towards his blade, like she wasn't even worth his time.

"Oh, you think you're real funny, don't you!" Yang screamed. That was it! Yang had flown clean off of just 'mad' and clean into 'absolutely livid'! The worst part was, by some fluke—or, she briefly feared, knowledge of her Semblance—Adam hadn't even given her more than a few love taps at a time! She was left to draw on her own aura for as much strength as she could muster, leaving weak flames flickering to life around her hair and fists. He was at three-quarters of his aura, and she had put so much into trying to lay him out in one blow that she'd brought herself all the way down to sixty percent.

She needed to end this.

Yang threw herself into the most powerful punch she could give without her Semblance, flames scorching the ground from fury and speed alike until she swung up into an uppercut that could floor a Beringel.

Adam grabbed her fist.

The explosion of force and fire cast the entire training room in orange hues, her aura was strained just from the backlash and the sheer force should've shattered Adam's arm for pulling a trick like that... but there he stood. His arm was clearly glowing red from the impact against his aura, but he remained standing: Adam had managed to channel enough aura into his hand quickly enough to negate enough of the impact.

The silence that resounded even outside the arena was broken only by the tinkling of crushed shotgun pellets hitting the ground.

"Teach me a lesson, Yang?" Adam pushed the mind-blanking pain in his arm back and forced his numbed hand to tightly grip Yang's own. That blow was barely meant to be lived through, let alone left standing through, and both of them knew that. It was a strike that would've not just knocked out any first year but likely hospitalized them. Adam was impressed with her ruthlessness. In the shocked silence of the aftermath, however, Adam found an opportunity he couldn't miss:

"How can you teach me when we aren't even _in the same class!"_ He suddenly yanked her forward and punctuated his shout by slamming his forehead into hers, sending Yang reeling back. She recovered quickly and reared her fist back for another swing, but it was too late: by the time Yang had even opened her eyes, he'd had leaped into the air, every inch of red on him from his eyes to his clothes shining a vivid red. Adam gathered all the energy he'd blocked from every punch he'd deflected and blocked, twisted his entire body, and swung his foot into the side of Yang's head.

The buzzer sounded.

"What?! She was just at half!" The Schnee called out in disbelief as Adam landed with darkening rose petals falling around his feet. The small audience let out cheers and cries of shock befitting a group far larger than they: one of the strongest first-years short of Pyrrha herself was left on the ground just trying and failing to get her feet back under her. Yang had been knocked silly by the blow.

Adam only snorted and began to walk away. Yang would make no such foolish mistake again, he thought just as his eye caught the final aura readings. Yang, of course, was at absolute zero.

He was at thirty percent. Fifteen percent away from having lost, just from that single punch. His right hand—the one he'd caught Yang with—instinctively tried to clench, but it was trembling and slow. Adam stopped. Even if he had been holding back, bringing him to that point was no small feat: were she not so cocky at first, he could've actually lost their duel by Beacon rules, even if in real life, he still would have had Yang dead to rights. Adam begrudgingly had to admit it: even if her goal was childish and insulting, Yang was a good opponent.

Honor wouldn't let him walk away from one so easily.

* * *

One second she was getting ready to throw a punch, the next, the world was hazy, wobbly and faintly rose-scented. Yang didn't even know what happened until she noticed that she could see the rest of the class outside the field: she'd lost. And then it all came back to her. With a groan, she tried to push herself back up to her feet, but her legs just weren't cooperating with her, anymore. It was like they were made of metal, now. Oh, she was going to kick Adam's ass when she could walk again!

The world started to come in focus just as she felt someone start helping her up. That scent of roses came back.

"Ugh... thanks, Rubes..." Yang mumbled.

"Not exactly." That voice was just a _little_ too deep to be her little sister's. She blinked the 'sleep' out of her eyes and glared up at the source: the one who knocked her senseless in the first place. Adam glared back down at her, agitation betrayed by the flickers of mirth in his eyes. Both recognized the other had many opportunities to make life just that little bit worse for them: she could shove him aside and retain her pride, he could let her drop and crush it further. She could spit blood in his eyes and claim a spiritual victory from the fickle crowd, he could make sure she wasn't leaving without help with another punch.

But, neither did so. Staring each other down, they found the faintest glimmer of understanding.

Yang snorted, spat on the ground and flashed him a bloody grin.

"Lucky shot!" She earned a rough bark of a laugh from the victor.

Maybe there was some hope for him, yet.

* * *

1-0


	5. 1-0

**1-0  
**

* * *

Well, Yang _thought_ that there was some hope for Adam. Instead, Ruby was wandering back to their table in the cafeteria to sulk after a swift and blunt rejection from that dumb hat-wearing schmuck. He'd been eating his meals either outside or at another table altogether and, after getting the big sister seal of 'yeah, he might be alright', Ruby had gone off to bring him to eat with the team. And what did she get for her troubles?

"Do not mistake my advice for camaraderie."

Yang crushed the apple she was eating, not caring about the juice scattering across the table, the protests of the student across from them or Weiss not-so-subtly scooting further away from her. _She_ had managed to come eat with the group just fine, and frankly she'd gotten the feeling that Weiss was more stuck-up than Adam was. The little heiress was putting up with Ruby and trying to be a good teammate, but 'putting up' was about as far as it went: she wasn't exactly trying to be friends with Rubes, and sure as hell wasn't trying to be friends with her.

But she was still _here!_

Yang swallowed down her anger and flicked her ruined apple so she could wave Ruby back down with a cheery smile. She couldn't let Ruby notice.

"No luck this time, huh?" she asked as Ruby plopped down in her seat and sighed.

"I thought you said that fight softened him up!" Ruby complained with slumped shoulders.

Yang let out an awkward laugh, forced down her anger just a little more and hoped Ruby didn't notice her grin was just hiding her gritted teeth. "Ha ha, yeah, me too... guess not..."

She'd learned from that last fight. Adam wasn't going to take her down a second time. Challenging him again was out of the question—even if Miss Goodwitch hadn't basically benched her for a week to let others fight without the fear of getting piledrived, she refused to let her have another go at Adam.

 _"I told you, Miss Xiao Long, these fights are not preferred,"_ she had said. _"An exception is an exception, not the rule. I'm afraid you will have to put your luck in the randomizer if you wish to challenge him in this class again."_

But that was fine. Yang wasn't a fool. She knew how to get what she wanted.

* * *

Forced to the ground, Adam rolled out of the way of a blast of Ember Celica's shotgun and forced himself to backpedal out of the way out of a hook halfway to his head by the time he'd stood up. That unstable step left him just open enough for her to fire her gauntlet, throw herself into a spin and send a kick right into his jaw.

This wasn't exactly how he had planned on spending his day at the gym. Drawing his ire and attention both with a sharp jab to his shoulder as she passed and a nod to one of the training rings, Yang had pushed him into a rematch. That wasn't exactly surprising.

He avoided a jab close enough for him to feel the metal of Ember Celica graze his aura. It was the first of many, swift and numerous, forcing him into close-quarters where only his vastly superior speed and experience let him survive.

What did surprise him was how her fighting style had done a complete one-eighty. Her blows lacked the golden glow that surrounded them before, eyes once burning crimson remaining a cold, focused purple. Every strike was calculated: blocking was not enough, for unless he deflected her strikes altogether it would still leave him open to gunfire. It was strange, to say the least: if anything, he had expected her to be even more wild.

She faked a cross and used it to snap up into a kick, but this time, he was ready: Adam snatched her leg, gathered his aura and palmed Yang's knee with all his might. The resulting howl and flash of yellow light was sharp enough to draw glances from fighters in their own rings. Though Yang was able to recover on shaky legs, Adam gave her no time to recover, no fair play, as he leaped up and threw a kick of his own that launched her into the hard light walls of the training ring.

Adam allowed himself a dark chuckle as Yang forced herself onto her feet. His blade laid on the floor beside one of the corner posts, forgotten once again. He didn't need it.

"What's wrong! You were so confident challenging me, before!" He held his arms out in a grand challenge. Yang's eyes slipped from lilac to magenta and, briefly, Adam thought the fight won, before she swallowed it down and beckoned _him_ forward, instead.

Adam snorted. A lot of pride on this human. A short dash forward and he was throwing a knee at Yang's head. She deflected it and threw him back with a burst of buckshot, then forced him back into trading blows. She left her side open. Adam swung low, only for Yang to rush ahead and catch his arm beneath her own. He was trapped.

The fiery, gold punch right after left him bouncing off of the arena's floor and rolling to the edge. His Scroll beeped at him: he and his opponent both were at fifty percent of their aura.

"Not looking so tough now, are you?" Another blast of buckshot kept him unsteady and against the wall. Yang cocked her fist back, ready to pepper him from afar with lead while he was still dazed. Adam caught a glint of black not too far away. Wilt.

He was not going to let that human get the last laugh. She'd forgotten that he was playing _nice._

He ducked low, rolling towards his weapon beneath a rain of buckshot that left the shield-like wall flashing. He heard shotguns roar, yet without the impact of shells. Yang was rushing him.

Adam smirked.

Yang didn't see his hand around Wilt or recognize Blush's gunshot until it was far too late.

She did, however, see the world turn red, and the silhouette of Wilt's hilt advancing right towards her eye. Then nothing at all.

... Yang hated being on the receiving end of a Semblance like hers. Especially when she hadn't even truly begun to use her own. She almost hated it as much as seeing the fuzzy, warping image of its smug user step over to her while she laid on the ground. He was saying something, but the combination of the pain in her head and the pain everywhere else in her body from having her aura shattered made it a little hard to focus on.

The many Adams reached down to help her up. Scowling, Yang blinked the daze out of her system and slapped his hand away. That was twice, now, he humiliated her, weapon or no weapon. She wasn't about to give him the satisfaction.

Especially when it wasn't just her honor he was walking all over.

* * *

2-0

"While you may all be very capable fighters, Team RWAY, you cannot always expect to simply be able to overpower your opponents. Keep that in mind for the future," Goodwitch admonished them. For once, Adam agreed.

Their first team battle was an absolute failure. The only reason they won was obvious: each and every one of them were prodigies of their own right. Yang wasn't far from being able to solo their opposing team, to say nothing of his own abilities even while holding back his speed. This did not, however, make the fight enjoyable nor pleasant to look at.

That blonde imbecile was too busy either trying to make her friendly fire at him look like an accident or trying to butt in on whoever he was facing. The Schnee barely listened to any order the moment they had gotten into the thick of combat and questioned just about every one she did hear at least once. And Ruby...

Any semblance of her former potential as a tactician practically evaporated the moment things went wrong. Mumbled orders. No reprimands. No control of the situation. Worse, the Schnee had tried to take over for orders when Ruby faltered. Yang hadn't been particularly pleased by her juvenile power grab.

Yang wasn't pleased by his attempts to call orders in order to save face for their team, either.

"What was that!" Weiss was ranting practically the moment they'd left class. "Victory or not, we looked like a bunch of amateurs out there. Ruby? Where was our leader? I could barely hear a single thing you said!" Adam forced back a frown at knowing the Schnee was able to pin down his own thoughts so well.

"You better back off, princess." Yang stormed forward before Ruby could even reply and loomed over the Schnee. Lilac eyes bored down into ice-blue.

She noticeably froze up before steeling her glare and clenching her fist. "Fine! How about _you_ , then, Yang? I don't think you put the least bit of thought in those shots, you buffoon! Did Adam knock a few brain cells loose in that fight of yours?"

Yang's eyes widened in offended rage. She cocked back her fist without thought. Shocked, the Schnee tried to step back and raise her rapier. Adam stared behind them at the young girl whose eyes darted between the two in increasing confusion and worry. They landed on him, but he did nothing. This was not just a human problem, but her problem as a leader.

"Stop!" In a rush of rose petals, Ruby slid between what little space was between the two girls, arms stretched out in front of the Schnee to protect her. "Both of you!"

Yang pulled up short, gaze dancing between Weiss and Ruby, mouth opening but with no words coming out. Finally, caught between shame and ever-growing anger, she spun on her heel and marched out.

"Whatever," she grunted on her way through the door, "I'll be in the gym."

Ruby looked back to speak to the Schnee, but she was already storming off in the other direction. That only left her and Adam in the awkward silence left behind. Seeing little reason for him to remain, Adam nodded to her—a small token of appreciation for actually stepping up—and turned to leave.

"You're going to need more confidence than that." He departed.

Weiss stopped sitting with them at the cafeteria.

* * *

Adam growled and snapped his Scroll shut beneath his desk. Nothing from Blake. It had been almost three weeks, now, and he had not heard a thing. Adam was no fool: even if Blake was taking something less conspicuous to get to Menagerie, like a boat, she would have been in range of the continent's limited CCT capabilities, by now. He rubbed his temples and returned his attention to the class at hand. The rapid speech of Doctor Oobleck all but went in one ear and out of the other—not like he had much use for human-propaganda disguised as history—but, it didn't matter. Blake's silence unnerved him.

Just as much as Yang was beginning to. He looked past Ruby trying her hardest to look like she understood and Weiss frantically scratching down notes at the blonde following along, eyes intense yet focused on her work. It wasn't her anger or blatant attempts to catch him in the crossfire of her attacks.

It was everything else about her. Her hair. Her face. Her voice. Her aloofness. The way her eyes turned red when she grew angry only heightened that feeling that something wasn't right. So much about her was familiar: it reminded him of... his mentor. He doubted there was anything of worth in that thought, though: bar an idle complaint about her brother she refused to let him dig deeper into, his mentor had never made much mention of her personal life, let alone family or children.

Yet, long hair and red eyes should not have been enough to make that comparison in his head.

So, why?

Why did she remind him so much of Raven Branwen?

"... I'm not giving you my notes, if that's what you're about to ask," Yang half-joked, a wary but not malicious look in her eye.

Adam just rolled his eyes.

* * *

"The next match shall be..." Goodwitch sighed as the second randomized fighter slotted into place, even as the class murmured excitedly. "Adam Belladonna versus Yang Xiao Long."

At first, Adam hadn't even moved. He'd bested her twice, now: once with and once without his weapon. His dominance was secure. She would pass, he would agree, and that would be that. Then, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Bobbing, golden hair. Without even sparing him a glance, she'd started towards the arena as proud as could be.

It was mystifying.

Not mystifying enough to stop him from using his blade from the beginning of their bout, this time, but certainly enough to bother him throughout this clash. He could feel strength in her blows that only guidance and purpose both could give someone. Yang was fighting for something, but what? Surely even a human this arrogant would not bash her head against a wall so much in the faint hopes of humbling someone better.

In the end, the battle was far quicker than the last, much to the crowd's dismay. As Adam began sheathing his weapon, standing tall above the kneeling blonde, he finally figured it out.

Yang's eyes flicked off to the crowd. To Ruby. She slammed her fist into the ground and growled in frustration.

It was her. That was the key. It all made sense to him, now: this was a misguided attempt to 'protect' her sister. For once, Adam truly understood one of these humans. He'd done something all too similar for Blake many, many times before.

Even if he had not done so, Adam thought as he clicked his blade open on the way back to the changing room. _Chuugi_ , 'Loyalty', still stood out like the day it was engraved.

He could understand loyalty like that.

* * *

3-0

He didn't find it strange when the door to his locker room opened. Nor, as he buttoned up the thin undershirt of his uniform, did he find it strange that there were footsteps headed right towards him.

Nor when he turned just in time for Yang's fist to meet his jaw. Adam hopped back a step, but there was no follow-up to her strike. Yang stood across from him, still panting. Whereas he was at least partially changed into Beacon's uniform, Yang's blouse was messily buttoned, her black shorts and leather skirt visible beneath, like she'd started to change from her combat attire before just storming over. The room was warm, yet her breath still came out as steam. Her eyes, one already growing darker, were glowing with the color of blood.

Adam touched his jaw and straightened himself. Yang's aura crackled and warped as it tried to valiantly bring itself together, one more time. His aura, on the other hand, was still strong enough to rush across him in a smooth, red wave. She had rushed in without her gauntlets. His sword was within arm's reach. She was still recovering from losing her aura the first time. He'd only been brought down to seventy percent. By all means, this was just a very complicated way of committing suicide.

He let his aura drop. Yang's eyes widened ever so slightly, and the fires of her rage threatened to boil over at the disrespect, but she paused. Perhaps she saw that there was not even a ghost of a smile on his face. He was angry—no, _livid_ that this brat had the nerve to try to ambush him here... but he knew what this was. Adam knew Yang wasn't going to quit because the chips were down. It was a matter of honor, after all. Of _loyalty._

Yang looked him over, then, her eyes losing their glow, settled into a fighting stance. Adam did the same. Her aura lowered as they inched closer, step by step. Another minor understanding reached, the two nodded, tapped fists, and proceeded to reach an even greater understanding in the language they both knew best: fighting.

* * *

"Just what are you two doing!" Adam, running forward to catch Yang with a shoulder check and Yang, arm pulled back for a final punch, found themselves motionless. Fields of violet coated their bodies like the auras they'd forgone, holding them in place. Neither could see Goodwitch, their eyes stuck locked on one another, but they could hear her approaching.

The locker room was nothing short of destroyed. Lockers bent. A bench snapped in half. Droplets of red scattered across floor, wall and ceiling alike. A locker launched. That last one probably was what gave them away, Adam thought to himself.

"You must have lost your minds, fighting in here," Goodwitch said through gritted teeth. She lessened her grip just enough for them to move their eyes and, more importantly, take breaths that came to them in great gasps. They were no better than the room: bruises forming, sleeves torn, busted lips. Yang was undoubtedly going to have a black eye, now. Adam was sure he nearly broke the tip of his horn, and a cut above his brow forced an eye shut. An eye twitching, her jaw set and her grip tight enough on her riding crop to nearly snap it, Goodwitch was very clearly trying to hold back a torrent of fury.

"Well?" Her glare zeroed in on Adam and, despite himself, he glanced away. Only Raven could've managed a glare with even a fraction of that anger.

Both said nothing.

"Fine, then." Goodwitch straightened herself and regained her composure. "Come with me." A flick of her crop and the two were dropped to the ground. They laid there for a moment, trying to catch their breath. A moment too long, however, for they were yanked up by a purple glow that locked their wrists together. Both stumbled, but were too proud to let themselves be dragged out, no matter how hard every step came to them.

They passed the curious eyes of the other students without a glance in their direction, including that of Weiss and Ruby, waved along to follow by Goodwitch. They did not argue.

As they finally reached an empty hall, Yang spat blood to the ground. "So..."

Adam glanced over to her. Goodwitch did not look back, but did raise her crop in warning as she walked.

"Was it good for you, too?"

Adam tried to ignore that. 'Tried' being the keyword, for as Ruby and Weiss groaned behind them, he and Yang couldn't stifle their snickering. Both wound up regretting it as the telekinetic hold on their wrists painfully tightened.

* * *

The ticking of clocks and gears in Ozpin's office was almost deafening in the dead silence shared between Team RWAY, Ozpin and Goodwitch. Ozpin leaned against steepled hands and looked over each of them. Glynda did not need to explain much: two of the people sitting in front of him looking like they'd decided to fight Beowolves without a lick of protection explained enough.

Ruby squirmed in her seat beneath the stares of her superiors like she was ready to bolt at any given moment. Weiss held herself high and a not-so-imperceptible distance away from the other three, but could not hide the occasional twitch or glance around. Yang and Adam, though they were rather clearly in the wrong, were more aloof. Yang refused to look at them for more than a couple seconds, whereas Adam was the opposite, staring Ozpin down as if he were the one in charge.

He supposed he'd let them soak in the awkwardness enough.

"You know, this is not the first time I have heard of your team having severe issues," Ozpin began. "Arguments in initiation, spending most of your time apart, shouting matches in the hallway, and now, this: two students who should be protecting one another instead having an auraless, dangerous brawl in the middle of our locker rooms." He kept his voice even, but stern. Just enough to needle them. "It goes without saying that this cannot continue, if you wish to remain at Beacon. All of you."

Even Yang straightened her jaw. Weiss, however, waved her hand off at the three she tried to stay away from. "This has been _those_ two bickering and fighting, not me! How can I be blamed for that?"

Ozpin's eyebrow quirked up, and he could practically feel her blood chill. "Is that so? Might I remind you that the shouting match was between you and your leader."

She took a sharp breath. Ah, so she didn't think he knew about that? "I... I have been doing my part to repair the damaged relations my outburst may have caused. They, however, have not done a thing!"

"You may have become a better teammate, but not a better _partner._ " Weiss swelled, undoubtedly about to shout something, only to realize where she was and shrink down. She settled for a stern gaze.

"Just as you, Miss Rose," Ruby squeaked under Ozpin's gaze, "have much to learn on being a leader outside of combat. The team is your responsibility, as well: both in good, and in bad."

Yang and Adam glanced between each other. The former rolled her shoulders and sat up to speak, not letting Ozpin have a go at her sister lying down. Even Glynda stepped forward from her place at Ozpin's side, expecting his 'eccentricities' to let them go without a condemnation.

Ozpin cut them off before they began. "And do not believe I have forgotten about you two. I have been keeping a close eye on you both ever since your entry, but let me be clear in saying that while I have been willing to disregard your illicit activities up until now, if your actions continue to leave it clear that it was the trend and not the exception, your stay at Beacon will be a short one."

He took the two going stiff as boards and paler than ice as a sign of a job well done. "You may leave. But, this is not a warning. I will be considering your punishment."

Ozpin watched the four leave in the same silence they entered, then finally allowed himself to sigh. This body of his didn't have too many years left, and RWAY was frankly set to take what few he had left off his lifespan.

"And what will that punishment be?" Glynda asked, glad that he was willing to put his foot down. "I think two weeks of detention should have at least the three girls back in line."

Ozpin smiled. "I have my own ideas."

* * *

Ruby wasn't shocked when Weiss remained away from them during dinner: she refused to speak with any of them ever since the elevator doors to Ozpin's office closed. What did shock her was seeing Adam walking straight towards them with his tray. Fearing another conflict, she gulped and prepared for the worst.

Yang, seeing her panic, turned around. She and Adam stared one another down. Aura had mostly patched them up, but purplish-red still lingered under one of Yang's eyes, and there was still a nasty bruise on Adam's cheek. They nodded, and Adam sat down beside Ruby, leaving her baffled. Was this it? Were they all finally getting along? Was she not going to wind up in trouble again? Her eyes gleamed and she smiled, turning to pull Adam into the conversation she and Yang were already having.

"We can't let that end with a draw," Adam said right over her head to Yang.

"Oh, good, I thought you were going to chicken out."

Ruby deflated. "Guuuys, we just got out of Ozpin's office! Can we maybe take a day or two off from the fighting? Please?"

Yang tussled Ruby's hair and ignored her pouting. "It's fiiine! It's a friendly match this time, right?"

"We'll see if it's still friendly after you lose," Adam said with a slim smirk.

Well... it was at least a step in the right direction?

* * *

Adam distinctly remembered the first and only time he had ever defeated Raven in combat. It had taken months before she even responded to his request to prove himself in combat against her, and months longer before she would accept. In truth, he was a late bloomer compared to most Huntsmen-in-training: Raven had not unlocked his aura until he was thirteen, long after most would have been awakened. Combined with her stringent belief in mastering the basics completely, and he had not so much as scratched upon what his Semblance could be.

It had all changed, that night, just when he had turned sixteen: she had personally led him to one of the many human villages surrounding Mistral and showed him just what the faunus had to endure, even under the supposed peace and equality the White Fang brought. His mentor showed him the brutality and horrors inflicted by humans upon the faunus when they so much as believed the authorities had blinked, let alone turned a blind eye, and how not a soul would stop them. Raven had shown him, that day, what a mistake he had made in believing peace to save the weak was. She'd originally desired to have her tribe raid this village, but instead used it as another lesson: fighting when dreadfully outnumbered.

Adam was glad to eradicate that wretched hive for her. That night, he learned to smother his conscience.

That night, he cast away his old self and his old name, taking up the last name Raven bestowed him with.

That night, Adam Taurus set on becoming the monster Blake knew him as.

However, it came at a price: he left the village with almost no strength and aura alike. It was then that Raven challenged him for the first time, in the burning wreckage of a town whose smoke obscured the moon and stars alike. He was in no condition to fight, nor was he in any condition to refuse, and that frustrated him to no end. He knew that he was powerless.

The battle was short and brutal: Raven toyed with him and chipped him down ever lower to the ends of his aura without a word until all he could do was block and parry to the best of his strength. It was no doubt just her way of trying to force out his Semblance or, if he was too weak, getting rid of him before he became an embarrassment to himself and her alike.

It had worked. All of his frustration at being powerless, all of his rage at seeing how mistreated the faunus were, even the petulant anger at being challenged before he was even ready came flooding out in a single strike. Raven looked on in shock, and was overcome by the strength of his newfound Semblance.

At least, that's what he had thought.

Never again would he be able to bring her low, even with his mastery of aura and Semblance alike. It had never made sense to Adam: was a Semblance more powerful the first time it was unleashed? Had she simply not expected his Semblance to show in such a manner, or at that time? Questions hounded him throughout his years and his training both, up until he left for Vale and lost contact with Raven entirely. No matter what strategy he worked his Semblance into, no matter how strong he had gotten or fast he could strike, that would remain the one and only time he'd beaten her. If anything, it was the only time he'd even challenged Raven.

But now? Now, as he watched Yang force herself up to her feet, flames raging around her like the corporeal form of her frustration and rage, Adam knew. As Yang shot forward as a flaming meteorite, gathering up all of that emotion to fuel the Semblance he'd seen for the first time in their fights, everything came together: the red eyes, the hair, her nature, everything.

Adam realized, to his dismay, that his victory against Raven was of no act of his own. No, it was because she was genuinely caught off-guard. After all, she must've observed a Semblance all too similar to his once before: that of her daughter, Yang Xiao Long.

Adam also realized, to his dismay, that in the time he'd been absorbed in his thoughts, Yang's fist had gotten approximately one quarter of an inch away from his face.

* * *

So this was what it felt like to be like on the other side. Through sheer willpower, Adam forced his legs under him, but with the world so hazy and shaky around him, taking even a single step turned out to be a challenge. Trying to do so in the crater he came back to reality in, however, turned out to be nigh-on impossible. He was even thankful for a moment when a blur of gold started helping him off the arena, right up until his pride kicked in and informed him he really needed to be helped off-stage by a human.

His emerald eyes refocused just as they caught onto Yang's lilac ones filled with giddy glee. That stupid grin of hers, try as he might to ignore it, was infectious. Adam forced it down to a smirk.

"Lucky shot."

His pride could wait.

* * *

3-1


	6. Coffee Break

** Coffee Break **

* * *

The second time Team RWAY stood in Ozpin's office was decidedly less awkward. That wasn't to say it wasn't at all: Weiss once more stood a slight, but clear distance away from the four, having refused to say much more than a single syllable to them for the past day. Ruby fidgeted in place, looking from the headmaster who sat alone at his desk to her teammate. She hadn't been faring too well with the cold shoulder Weiss was giving them all. She thought things were getting better!

Ozpin took a long sip from his mug. "I've decided upon a suitable punishment." It was stating the obvious: it wasn't as if they would've been brought up for any other reason. "It is readily apparent that what the four of you lack are visions of the future. Example students, if you would."

Ruby crossed her arms. "Uh, my Uncle Qrow? Mom?"

"Our dad?" Yang added with a little disgruntlement.

Ozpin smiled knowingly. "If you knew how many times your parents' team found themselves here, I don't think you would agree."

Both opened their mouths to protest... but a little more thought on Qrow and Taiyang had them rethink that.

"Still, there is a reason why I randomize the placement of my students, even knowing that it can result in a team that has more than a few kinks to work out. It is because Huntresses and Huntsmen both must be capable of working with one another, no matter their faults. After all, to work alone is common, yes, but working with other Hunters, military personnel, even the very people you stand to protect is not uncommon. As such, would you not agree it is best to work out those kinks now rather than having a _police officer_ _without his aura_ be the one who mistakenly shuns a sibling and, to use more modern parlance, 'gets jumped' for it?"

Ruby raised her hand.

"Rhetorical question."

Ruby lowered her hand.

"... But, that being said, most students at least have the foundation of teamwork set in place by their combat schools. Combat schools only one of you has even attended to completion. In fact, I get the distinct feeling that all of you have a rather strong tendency to work alone." Adam kept his smugness to himself on being rather certain that he did not. "Or at least, certainly not with equals." Ozpin's eyes focusing on him at that left said smugness in Adam replaced with unease.

"It's a rather unique situation. As such, it requires a unique punishment." He tapped his desk, bringing up a hologram of a tiara. "Glynda, bring them in."

Now, all of them were fidgeting, albeit for different reasons. Thoughts ran wild on exactly what kind of punishment even required more than one person to execute, let alone one that would be considered unique.

Then, the elevator doors opened.

Adam's eyes widened. "You!"

* * *

It wasn't long after he had made the choice to abandon the White Fang for Blake. In what would wind up the final time he'd see her for some time, Blake had oh-so-casually dropped the fact that he should likely mask his horns. Not for his sake, of course. For their sake: heavens knew all it would take is one jab for him to wind up in prison and someone else to wind up six feet under. At the time, so desperate to keep Blake with him, he had agreed.

By the time he'd even reached the store, the weight of the stupidity of the situation was starting to weigh on him. Anger at how much he'd thrown away, yet how many challenges remained in his way, was bubbling to the forefront of his mind at all times.

And so he made his way down the shelves of hats, barely noticing how quickly the shop cleared out as he stalked through it like a predator searching for its prey. His eyes suddenly caught on a black hat that quickly gained his fancy. With a hum of interest, he picked it up. Soft, indented crown, thin rim... Adam quite liked the trilby.

"Nnnno. Try again." Which was why he was particularly agitated when a dainty, gloved hand snatched it just out of his own. Adam whirled around to face the person who would dare disrespect him in such a manner, teeth bared and anger practically corporeal around him.

"Is _that_ how you thank the person who just saved your life? Rude." The girl was unfazed: some tall human who almost met him at eye level, and one who must have frequented this shop a lot considering her cocoa-and-black designer clothes with a militaristic bent to them. Combined with her beret, designer and the aviator sunglasses she was staring impassively at him over, if she weren't so agitating, Adam might have considered her stylish.

But she was, so she wasn't.

* * *

"Oh. It's you." The same woman stood before him now, three others at her sides, and Glynda behind her.

"You know _Coco Adel?_ " Ruby asked, eyes practically sparkling.

Adam snorted. "We've met. Once. Not a charming first impression."

"Actually, I saved his life," Coco countered.

"An _Adel_ saves your life and you act in such a boorish manner?" Weiss scoffed at Adam's rudeness, leaving him both increasingly confused and agitated at the circumstances.

"You never exactly told me _how_ you did so," Adam half-growled at Coco.

Coco peered over her glasses as if Adam were daft. "By saving you from being the laughingstock of Vale, of course." She smirked upon seeing the homburg hat Adam wore. "I see you took my advice, though."

"You took my other choice."

"Oh, did I? Man, I am just too good to people..."

Ozpin cleared his throat, bringing all eyes back on him. "To return to the point, students, I'm sure you are all well aware of who Team CFVY is."

"Not particularly," Adam replied.

"Uh, have you been living under a rock, or something?" Yang asked. "They were pretty big news in the last Vytal Tournament."

"I was raised outside of the kingdoms." Considering the fact that the only thing he'd considered the Vytal Tournament to be before coming here was a target, Adam decided it was best to... fib on that one.

Ruby and Weiss all but whirled on him, and Adam realized with growing dismay he was likely about to be on the receiving end of not one but two, as Yang would call them, 'geekouts'.

To his surprise, however, Ozpin actually held a hand up to stop them.

"Team CFVY here are quite the local celebrities, you see, but I will leave the introductions to them." Ozpin sipped from his mug. "They will also be your example students. Think of them as... chaperones, like the Huntsman or Huntress you will take your first mission with. Guidance counselors. Your new 'older siblings', even."

Every sentence left all but Ruby's expressions growing more and more downtrodden. Even Adam was left rubbing his temples. He expected some level of humiliation just from being in this school in the first place, but to this extent? He was certain he would have the definition of 'demeaning' engraved onto his aura. Or his grave.

"Starting today, you will be assigned to them for a minimum of one hour at the end of each of your school days. They will be charged with getting the four of you in shape to be a true team. As such, to better harness your potential, they also have the ability to punish you with my position." The girls went pale. Adam's eye twitched. "And, if they deem you truly unfit at the end of your punishment period, the ability to decide whether or not it is wise to keep you in Beacon."

Adam was rather sure he spotted the exact moment the girls' souls threatened to escape from their bodies. Beyond the utter humiliation, at least, Adam did not find that as terrible. At worst, it would be awkward explaining it to Blake... were she to ever answer her Scroll, that is. That did not make this any less _infuriating._

"Well, with that said," Ozpin continued as if three of the four members of RWAY weren't still reeling, "I believe your first session should be starting just about now." He smiled as Glynda had to all but shepherd the four into the elevators, three barely recognizing their surroundings, the last stewing in enough anger to barely catch that they were being dismissed at all. Team CFVY stepped into the second, not even fazed by their new charges' emotions.

Ozpin once more found himself sighing as the doors closed. It was a risky move: were they to fail, he would lose so much, not to mention having Qrow and Taiyang setting off to give him an early grave. Still, he believed in them. They had potential. This entire _experiment_ to convert Her own tools had potential.

All they had to do was try not to kill one another again. Simple, right?

Right?

* * *

"Alright, maggots!" Scowling, Coco marched between both teams as they stood in the courtyard just outside Ozpin's tower. "You heard the headmaster: we're here to whip you four into shape! Headmaster Ozpin may have been so kind as to tell you my name but not who I am! I am Coco Adel, heiress to the Adel fashion family and, if you so happen to live in a cave, first freshman second-place winner of the Vytal Tournament in twenty-five years! Unfortunately for you piles of garbage, this is not the Vytal Tournament and silver doesn't mean shit!"

Her ranting was doing a good job on the three girls, leaving them rigid and at attention, still reeling from the bombs Ozpin had dropped on them... even if Yang's red eyes showed her disdain for this. Adam, frankly, was wondering if it was too late to escape and pass off his disappearance to the White Fang as an injury. Besides, the fact that the only other faunus, a brown-haired rabbit girl who couldn't keep her eyes on them for more than a second or two was rather clearly trying to stifle laughter didn't bode well.

"When I am done with you, you will be the best damn Huntress team in Beacon other than us or you could kiss that future goodbye! I have your lives as Huntresses in my hands, ladies, and it would be best for you to remember that! Am I understood!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Ruby and Weiss shouted, the former snapping a salute. Yang had substantially more trouble humiliating herself like that.

"Fully," Adam growled. Just let the human have their fun, strike them when they least expect it. He'd dealt with people like this enough times to know what to do.

Coco halted in front of Yang and Adam. A twist of her heel had her glaring over her glasses at them both. "I don't believe I heard you!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Yang did a surprisingly good job of shouting through gritted teeth.

Coco stepped so that only Adam was in her sight. Her eyes bored into his. "Well?!" she barked.

Adam shifted his jaw, and his plan flew out of the window. "I answered. Or are you shouting because your hearing is shoddy?" Adam said with a faint sneer. Ruby and Yang snickered.

"Oooh, we've got a smart-ass! All of you but the princess, twenty push-ups, now!" Ruby squeaked and was on the floor in an instant. Yang shifted her jaw and reluctantly followed.

Adam didn't move. "Excuse you?"

"I guess either it's your ears or your head that's screwed up, because Ozpin made it very clear that we can punish you, so get down on the ground, punk!"

The rabbit girl behind them finally broke into giggles as one of CFVY—a Vacuan, scarred man with simple clothing, fiery-red hair and damaged, empty eyes—laid a hand on Coco's shoulder. "I... don't think he meant we could punish them like that," he said.

Adam and Coco glared daggers at one another, air practically combusting between them before Coco... laughed. Like a storm dissipating with only a breeze, the aura of threat and power vanished in an instant. She waved the man off and cocked her hips to one side.

"You're no fun, Fox. Alright, alright, get up, you're fine!" Coco stepped back with her team, a warm smile replacing the vicious scowl she had before.

"Wait, wait, wait, was all that just a joke?" Yang asked as she got up. Coco's grin answered that question for her. Grinning back, she held her fist out.

Coco fist-bumped her. "Alright, but really, don't get too comfy. Here's how this is gonna work: we don't actually have anything planned. We... well, let's just say we got in a situation like yours once, and instead of giving us a punishment then, he waited two years to call it in. We found out yesterday. He does that. You're lucky. So, we're going to just split this up, one-on-one, and try to figure out what's going on. Sound good? And don't worry, we won't be speaking a word to anyone outside our own team of... 'guidance counselors'."

"S-so, uh..." Ruby cleared her throat.

Coco raised an eyebrow and rolled her hand. "Come on, spit it out."

"Do I go with you? Leader and leader?" She couldn't hide how hopeful she was about it.

"Nope!" Coco jabbed her thumb towards Weiss. "She is."

Ruby looked like a kicked puppy. Weiss' jaw dropped.

"You're with Fox."

"Aw..." Ruby managed to look even more heartbroken.

"... Thank you for the vote of confidence," Fox said with a cocked eyebrow. Ruby's mouth opened and closed like a fish before she jumped forward, words flying faster than frankly any of them could understand in a desperate attempt to save face.

"Blondie, you're with Yatsuhashi." She waved back to the absolutely massive man who towered over even Adam. By almost a foot. He bared a frightful resemblance to his lieutenant, Adam thought, especially in terms of height. Were it not for his size, though, he'd have been completely unassuming: simple tunic, earthen colors of clothing, only a bronze shoulder pad for armor. Stoic. Practically Yang's opposite. Much like how this serious-looking 'Fox' was Ruby's opposite, and their boisterous, annoying, grating leader was... actually relatively fitting for Weiss, but, still.

None of that mattered, though, because—

"By process of elimination, you, Mr. Doom N' Gloom, are with Velvet."

He had a fellow faunus. Thank God. He needed a reprieve from this madness. Adam even managed a smile and nod when Velvet waved to him. He'd take what he could get.

"And _don't get any ideas._ " Aaand his smile was gone. Adam rolled his eyes.

"Alright, everyone, I'll see you in... I don't know, an hour or something. Weiss, with me! Might as well multitask and get some shopping in while we're out." Coco turned and strode off deeper into Beacon, Weiss barely even sparing them all a glance before following behind like a puppy.

"W-well, uh... see you guys later, I guess?" Ruby said to the rest before glancing over her shoulder and noticing that Fox was already wandering off. "Hey, wait for me!" She darted off in a rush of flower petals.

Yang looked Yatsuhashi over. "... Wanna head to the gym?"

"Agreeable."

And then there were only two.

Velvet wasn't entirely fond of that: she'd been given a brief rundown on why they were here in the first place, and rumors of the tall and brooding man practically radiating a distinct mix of anger and disdain even in the halls were not flattering. Rumors of being a criminal, dark pasts, murders, who knows what.

Adam glanced over to her, and to her surprise, there was... none of that. Sure, he didn't look _happy,_ but it was like walking outside expecting a thunderstorm and just getting a drizzle.

He actually smiled. "If I'm going to torment you with the tales of insanity from my team, we should consider somewhere more peaceful." Adam started walking off. "Come, I heard there were gardens near the Forever Fall."

Stunned and confused, Velvet took a second before following behind.

* * *

"So, what's the problem?" Coco picked a dress from a rack, glancing at Weiss from a mirror ahead. She couldn't help but notice how Weiss relaxed when she was away from her own team. Shoulders not as rigid. A bounce in her step. That was already worrying.

Weiss rolled her eyes as she looked over a beret. The shop was empty besides them and a starstruck attendant unlikely to speak a word. It was one of the Adels' own shops, after all. They could speak freely. "I believe I would have far better luck explaining what _isn't_ a problem with those ruffians than what is not."

"Well, give it a try, anyway. This hour isn't about to spend itself, you know. Here," Weiss turned as Coco handed her a set of clothes. "try this one."

"If you insist, thank you..." She smiled slightly to her and with a thankful nod, took them into a changing room. Coco marked that down in her mind. She was happier, but still pretty restrained. Interesting. "It's insanity in there like you would never believe! Our leader is a child who either doesn't take something seriously or can't reign in the troublemakers of our team, her sister just enables her time and time again, and..." From the changing room, Weiss growled. "Adam is his own list of problems."

She all but flung open the door. "I might be biting my tongue around them to be a good partner, but whatever Ozpin saw to make her leader over me, I _certainly_ haven't seen any of it, myself." Dressed in a flowing, white evening gown that faded to a translucent, icy-blue at its ends, an aspect shared by her bolero jacket, Weiss looked more like a princess than a Huntress.

"But at least she could make it somewhere in this world, unlike the two barbarians who got me in this situation to begin with. How they even got into Beacon astounds me."

Coco shrugged. "Ozpin moves in mysterious ways." She wiggled her fingers for dramatic effect. Weiss stifled something between a scoff and a giggle. "That being said, I trust our headmaster. He's wiser than I thought he was when I started... mostly because he doesn't judge books on their cover. There's more to anyone than what meets the eye. By the way, no." She handed another outfit off to Weiss. "Try this one."

Having actually taken a bit of a liking to it, Weiss blinked in surprise, but nodded and stepped back inside.

"Let's get in deep, then. What's with Ruby?"

* * *

"I can't control anything!" Ruby not so much plopped down but melted onto the bench Fox was sitting on. Secluded, open and staring out upon the Emerald Forest used for initiation, Fox personally came here quite often to think. Hopefully, it was what Ruby needed, too.

"I mean, the headmaster put me as the leader of a team with my big sister, some guy four years older than me and... _Weiss!_ The only reason they even have to listen to me is that Ozpin said I'm the big leader, and I don't think anyone's gonna buy that for too long." She sighed. "All it even takes is for them to just... go off on their own, and what can I even say to stop them? Why bother if they're just gonna do it anyway?"

She flopped onto the ground. "If I can't even stop them from beating each other up, how am I supposed to lead a team in a fight?" Ruby whimpered.

Fox waited to see if Ruby was going to keep going. Nothing. He cleared his throat. "Maybe... focus a little less on leading?"

Ruby looked up, silver eyes sparkling. "Does Ozpin accept resignations?"

"Not exactly. You should remember that you aren't alone. You just have to... work _with_ your team as leader. After all, your sibling seemed rather happy to help keep control in her own special... dangerous way."

"Are you sure she didn't just want to punch Adam in the face?"

* * *

Lying down on a different kind of bench, Yang groaned as Yatsuhashi placed another set of weights on her bar. "Are we really going here? He was an ass, I hit him, we made up, we're cool now, alright?" She shifted in place and grabbed the barbell.

Yatsuhashi crossed his arms and stepped away, refusing to spot. "Just rudeness, then?" Even without emotion, his tone did not exactly leave him sounding trusting of Yang's opinion.

She scoffed and started lifting, anyway. She had aura, she didn't care. After a few repetitions, though, Yatsuhashi's constant, stern stare got the best of her. Resisting the urge to just chuck the bar in annoyance, she racked it and sat up.

"Look, she's my little sister! She's fifteen, what do you want me to do, just let everyone pick on her?"

"Would you have attacked freshmen two years younger than you if she had come to Beacon at the normal time?"

Yang scowled. "She'd be older, then! She could..." She sighed. "She could handle herself, by then."

"She can handle herself now."

"Yeah, no."

Yatsuhashi raised an eyebrow. "Ozpin believes so."

"Well, then Ozpin's a—" Yatsuhashi raised the other eyebrow. "... Guy who doesn't know Rubes like I do."

"Which is why I believe you know she can make it as leader. She just needs help."

Yang glanced away, knowing full well that if Yatsuhashi looked into her eyes, he'd see just how quickly he'd won that argument. "Well, fine, whatever, but even if Ruby's handled, that won't make the other two any easier. Weiss is a bona fide ice queen, and even if Adam isn't as rough around the edges, he's still a—"

* * *

"Shortsighted, arrogant, brooding, careless, know-it-all brute so focused on looking 'cool' and leading from the back that he'd gladly stomp on everyone else if it got him even a single step up!" Weiss threw open the changing room's door yet again with a huff, many an outfit having already been tried by both. Some set aside, some put back.

Coco raised an eyebrow and didn't bother to mask her smirk. Sitting atop a chair with leg crossed over the other, she chuckled. "Well, that just about summarizes what you've been ranting about for the past three outfits. Hey, I think this one fits you."

Coco held up a simple, white overcoat. Flowery, rose-like designs in sky-blue flowed around its sleeves and the bottom of the coat both. The color scheme might've been inverted, but the similarities to Adam's own attire did not pass Weiss by.

She scoffed and crossed her arms. "I am _nothing_ like him!"

"Know-it-all, keeps trying to lead, arrogant..." Each word seemed to leave Weiss with a deeper snarl. Finally, Coco stood up and raised her hands in defeat, leaving the outfit behind. "Alright, alright, I'll drop it... but, I think I finally got the problem." She walked with Weiss towards a mirror.

A departure from Weiss' usual fashion, the thin, gray, tight-fitting sweater she wore was more like a dress, a pale-blue waist cincher breaking up the colorless plane. Weiss nervously adjusted the beret of the same color under Coco's appraising gaze.

Finally, Coco nodded, took off her sunglasses, and slid them onto Weiss, instead. "You're _way_ too much like me."

Weiss blinked, a hint of a smile growing. "Really?"

Coco smirked. "Bad news, kid: that wasn't a compliment. I was a real pain in my teammates' asses, seriously." She retrieved her wallet from her purse. "Go ahead and tell me if any of this sounds familiar: thinks she's way too good for everybody even though she seriously went and joined a Huntress Academy, daddy problems, nose held high, based basically her whole life off of being a heiress instead of a soldier, spoiled, treated her teammates like trash, clashed with basically _everyone_ on campus..."

She flicked a photo over to Weiss. It was half of a standard picture taken when teams were formed. The only two there were a displeased-looking Fox and Coco. At least, Weiss _thought_ it might've been Coco: her hair tied back in a ponytail, a frilled, lengthy, mocha-brown dress and numerous bangles and necklaces, were it not for the golden handcannon holstered at her waist, Weiss would've thought first-year Coco was returning from a prom, not a potentially-deadly initiation.

"... Yeah, see? That face, right there? Shocked, confused and kind of disturbed? That's why I'm here: so you aren't like that every time you think back to now." Coco threw an arm around Weiss' shoulders. "The good news is that you aren't the leader, so you don't need to worry about it as much as I did... but the difference between leader and teammate's kinda blurry in the first place. Why do you think Ozpin draws his team leaders out of a hat?"

That snapped Weiss out of it, leaving her appalled, offended and with her mouth agape. "He _what?_ "

Coco burst into laughter that only got louder at Weiss' confusion. "Oh my god, you are just too easy! I'm joking, I'm joking... but it _is_ the reason he keeps us like this for four years based off of just a couple hours of experience. We've got leaders because the world's got leaders, and sometimes, no matter how arbitrary and stupid it might feel, you've gotta listen to them. Well, unless you can find a loophole, but that's beside the point." She smirked. "Check it: if you think all this arguing about who listens to who is bad now, imagine if you didn't even have someone who called themselves leader?"

Weiss paled, and her eyes widened. "We would keep fighting over it until we perished."

"Which would happen pretty fast." She patted her shoulder. "Truth is, you'll all have your time to lead, one day. Which means that just buddying up to your leader isn't going to cut it. It's not like being an employee where you can keep climbing the ranks by sucking up to the higher-ups: if you're gonna be a good teammate for one, it's gotta be for _everyone else_ , too."

Weiss stared into the mirror, mulling over Coco's words. It wasn't as if she hadn't tried, but all she got back instead were snarky comments and snipes. What was so wrong with simply leaving them to squabble amongst themselves and focus on her own work? Well, besides the fact that such a thing was an impossibility, considering how now their problems could get her thrown out of the Academy she'd sacrificed so much—even nearly costing her an eye—to attend.

She supposed that made it rather obvious what she needed to do: she had to actually... try to befriend them again. Or at _least_ get close enough for one of them to listen to her.

Weiss groaned. "But they're just so... _them._ "

"Yeaaah, I never said it'd be easy." Coco flashed a more sympathetic smile her way. "But, it's not like you haven't been so ' _you'_. Just chill a bit, let your hair down. Everyone's got their reasons, you'll figure theirs out eventually..." She hummed to herself.

"That wasn't all metaphorical, by the way: this outfit would work way better if you let your hair down." Coco motioned to Weiss' hairpin, but she shied away.

"Sorry, I... would rather not."

Coco waved it off. "Alright, alright, fair enough. Still, don't worry, kid. I've got faith in your team."

* * *

"They're going to kill each other and we're gonna get the blame for it," Coco muttered through a fake smile to her teammates as she waved the three girls of RWAY off in Beacon's courtyard. She and Weiss had spent far more than an hour with their chosen(by Coco) partner, and the sun was already beginning to set.

"They need a lot of work," Yatsuhashi agreed. He was the only who spent the hour and little more: it wasn't as if he disliked Yang, it was just that she was a little too fiery for his tastes. They would've been great friends if he was still a first-year, though, he had to admit.

Fox crossed his arms. "I don't believe it is that bad. We weren't too dissimilar when we started off." All the way down to the leader having a tough time wrangling everyone else together, as he learned in day-by-day detail from Ruby.

"Important difference, though, Fox: you guys weren't all assholes, too."

Fox loudly cleared his throat and nodded up to their giant friend. Yatsuhashi rolled his eyes, even though he smiled.

Coco had to stifle a laugh. "Alright, point: Yatsu could've given that Yang girl a run for her money back in those days."

" _'Run for her money'?_ " Fox repeated, incredulous. "I don't believe even _she_ is going to scratch at Yatsuhashi's freshman record for fights."

"It could've been higher," Yatsuhashi admitted. "Nel held me back a lot."

The group shared a light chuckle at that, though Coco's came off as more forced than she'd have liked to admit.

"I hope I haven't missed too much," said Velvet as she jogged over to the rest of her team.

"Well, well, nice of you to join us!" Coco crossed her arms, a playful smirk on her face. "Spit it: what kinda shadow is our resident emo casting on the team, because I'm pretty sure he's the other half of the real problem, here."

"More like three quarters of it," Fox muttered under his breath, getting a chortle from Yatsuhashi.

Velvet, though, looked conflicted. Her eyes darted to and fro. "Well, um, about that... I'm not entirely sure what to say. He was... different... from what I've heard."

Coco arched an eyebrow. "He didn't try to smooth talk you, did he? Prodigy team or not, I'll kick his ass, just say the word." She adjusted her purse.

Velvet frantically waved the thought off, blushing. "No, no, it wasn't that! I just... don't get it, that's all." She shrugged. "He was... a nice guy."

Narrowing her eyes, the leader of Team CFVY didn't look like she was buying that for a moment.

"Bullshit. Tell me everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Indeed, as you can see, Team CFVY have been boosted up a year. They are now third years and upperclassmen, having even been in the Vytal Festival once before. A slight change, but one I wanted to make to give better explanation for how strong they are.


	7. Red Velvet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I'd gotten terribly busy this month.

** Red Velvet **

* * *

The walk through Beacon's gardens was a peaceful, quiet one for Adam and Velvet. Planted and tended to by students, it was not the most organized of gardens but, bearing all from the pink-petaled cherry blossom trees of Mistral to the lavender, bell-like harebell flowers of Atlas, it carried a myriad of flora. The lively colors and pleasant scent—especially for a faunus—made it all too easy to lose one's self in their thoughts as they wandered the pathway.

It was certainly Velvet's problem, at least, for she found it rather hard to spark a conversation with the man walking beside her. Adam was fine with silence, only glancing occasionally in her direction, as if to make sure she was still there at all. That left it to her, she guessed, to try and start conversation... which was a shame, because she was absolutely awful at it. Coco was practically her definition of approachable and she still had problems sparking up a new conversation with her, let alone with someone she'd only seen with some form of a glare or snarl on his face.

That is, until now. Right _now,_ he looked positively peaceful, and that practically had her on more edge than if he was furious. After all, what if whatever she said just ticked him off? Coco knew she didn't like conflict, and the last thing she needed was another student having it out for her. Cardin was bad enough.

"Tell me, Velvet," Adam turned his gaze down on her, "I was under the assumption that there was to be something about being a 'guidance counselor'. Was I incorrect?"

Velvet paled, ready to spring into damage control already, when she turned and found Adam smirking, clearly amused.

"I'm joking. Fixing up a team on short notice is no small feat; I don't envy your team's position."

She looked him over. "You certainly sound... not worried about this."

Adam shrugged and paused to catch a tumbling blossom in his gloved hand. "They'll fix their issues soon enough. Or won't. Yang will have no choice but to let Ruby go, Ruby will eventually take the reins when she figures out no one else will, and the Schnee clearly values her time here too much to interfere."

Velvet raised an eyebrow as she stepped ahead of him. "So you think none of this is your fault?" She couldn't keep the incredulity from her tone.

"Some? Yes. I refuse to follow a child's orders. When she's ready to speak with the intent to be _listened to_ , not just heard, I will comply. No sooner. As for Yang, we've worked out our problems."

"And Weiss?"

Adam's peace vanished, his eyes narrowing with anger and barely-concealed hate. A chill ran up Velvet's spine: she'd seen that kind of hatred before in her hometown when the Schnee Dust Company was involved, yet nothing to the extent she saw now.

Just as quickly as it came, Adam's anger slipped away. He scoffed. "She brought that on herself."

Velvet fidgeted with her hands, not entirely sure where to even begin with that. "... Poor first impressions?"

Adam raised an eyebrow and, smirking, slipped the hat from his head. He brushed his fingers across a black highlight in his hair—no, _horns._ "You could say that."

Adam was a faunus. That... explained so much. The distrust of his team, the clashing with Weiss, the relief at being matched up with her, everything! Velvet realized she must've looked rather silly when she was shocked, for the faunus ahead of her shuddered with barely stifled laughter.

"Don't tell me I've broken you with that little revelation..."

Her ears flopped down in front of her in a futile attempt to hide her embarrassed blush. Adam laughing openly this time didn't help her in the least.

Just when her embarrassment threatened to fester into shame, however, Adam placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. Frankly, I'm just happy that there's someone I can get rid of this stupid thing around. According to Yang, I look like a—and I quote—'total dweeb' with it, and I'm starting to agree with her."

Velvet held back a giggle and raised her ears, even if she still found it a little hard to meet his gaze. "I get it... I tried something a little like that when I got here from Menagerie. According to Coco, though, the top hat just made it _way_ more obvious."

Adam snorted, though when she glanced up, she found his smile more... sympathetic. After a soft squeeze of solidarity to her shoulder, he let go and began walking down the winding pathway. Deciding to sidestep the Weiss problem, Velvet decided to change the subject.

"Maybe we should... focus on Ruby, first?"

"So be it." Adam sighed and looked off towards the tumbling, red petals of Forever Fall not too far away. "Should I start with her prodigal skill, the worrying fact that her leadership skills crumble at the slightest hint of resistance, or the substantially more worrying fact that she sleeps with her weapon?"

She furrowed her brow. "Well, that last one doesn't sound too bad... It's like security, right?"

Adam glanced over at her, face showing no emotion. "I'm not sure if security warrants using it like a body pillow."

Velvet's giggles filled the gardens as they walked along. His satisfied smile didn't escape her notice, either.

* * *

"... It was like he was a different person," Velvet admitted to her team, gathered around her in the courtyard. "A-at least, from what I've heard. It isn't like there aren't any problems, either, but there just wasn't... I don't know... one _central_ problem?"

"Like a lack of confidence or being too overprotective of your sibling," Fox offered.

"Right! Nothing big like that... besides being a faunus in a team with the Schnee heiress, but that can't be _everything_ there is to it..."

"Nah, I think you hit the nail right on the head, Velvet," Coco said as she waved them to follow her back to the dorms. " 'He was a different person.' "

It dawned on Yatuhashi. "A mask."

"See, the big guy gets it: he's probably just putting on airs around the sisters, and probably not too happy about being around a Schnee, especially with how she gets. Sounds like what you've got is the real guy: all you gotta do is get him to take the mask off. Easy!"

Velvet grinned. "Great! How do you think I should do that?"

"Pfft, I don't know. Good luck on that."

Velvet deflated under the laughter of her team, but she could still manage a smile. She knew they didn't mean ill by it.

* * *

Adam seethed as he heard the mocking laughter at Velvet's expense in the cafeteria. Her complaints only seemed to spur on her torturers more, all while not a single soul rose to help her. Conversations went on during lunch like not a soul heard them. His fork stabbed into his steak hard enough to bend it.

Cardin Winchester. What a _nuisance._ Claim as some might that he is only a bully, he and his little crew were exactly what Adam expected when he came to sit alongside humans. Despicable. Petty. Racist. 'Bullying'. It was the latter, of course, that seemed to be bothering Team RWAY—who the Schnee unfortunately rejoined during their meals—and 'JNPR', another team he honestly paid little attention towards. They chattered and jabbered on about how Jaune should do something about Cardin's bullying of him, yet they were all too cowardly to do anything themselves. The specifics escaped Adam.

Frankly, he didn't care. Especially as they disregarded what was going on a mere table away.

"Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone," Jaune tried to defend himself and sent a pointed look in Velvet's direction.

Adam's fork snapped. The audacity. The _audacity_ to use her as an excuse, not just to hide from his own problems, but to refuse to help the faunus with hers. He felt someone place a hand on his shoulder, and Ruby's voice distantly calling to him just as his conscience did in Blake's own voice, but it was too late, now. Adam was focused. Adam was _livid._

"You cowards just hide behind your words!" Adam spat and shook Ruby's hand off of him.

The shocked expressions faded into the back of his mind as he stormed forward towards the group.

"What a freak..." One of Cardin's team snarked away, this one not even having the gall to join in. There was no doubt in Adam's mind that he did that only out of fear for being caught, just like his leader was about to be.

Adam snatched Cardin's wrist, his fingers into it. Velvet trembled, barely holding back tears, especially now that a genuine confrontation was bringing more and more eyes to them.

"What do you want, Hat Trick?" Cardin had a veritable wealth of aura: a little squeezing at his wrist wasn't going to even make him budge. Instead, he threw a smug grin up at Adam. Huntsmen and huntresses were the worst of the bunch, always believing that their aura put them on an entirely new level than the rest of the population. Combine that with the usual human discriminatory behavior and the hate for anything that so much as looked different, and you had what looked like an unstoppable force of torment for the faunus. But, ah, how they depended on their aura. It was amazing to see how many were all but dependent on it rather than defensive tactics.

Cardin refused to let her ears go. If anything, he tried to pull her even closer. This was a mistake.

Few things could truly turn a Huntsman's dependence on aura against them. The art of aura penetration was one of them. Overpower one's will with your own, and you can simply force your opponents' soul into submission, letting you by without a fight. It was a highly illegal art to learn after the Great War—after all, it is a technique almost solely for murdering other Huntsmen. It took plenty of willpower, plenty of bloodlust, and plenty of luck to find a mentor willing to train you in it... to say nothing of the training required.

Unfortunately for Cardin, Adam had all of that.

Which was why Cardin suddenly felt those fingers crushing his wrist, aura or not. Now, panic began to set in.

"What I _want_ is for creatures like you to disappear... however, I am willing to settle for you to stop this. Forever." Points to Cardin, at least, for keeping a tough face throughout it all. A dull, white light began to gather around his fingertips: Cardin's aura was not broken, left constantly attempting to fill in the gaps in its coverage Adam's piercing fingers left.

"Why should I listen to a faunus-lover like you? Please, and _I'm_ the creature?"

The only response was the twist of a wrist and a muffled, pained grunt from its owner. When Cardin and his crew did not speak up once more, Adam leaned down close and continued:

"Let. Her. Go." The fleshy _crack_ of Cardin's wrist served as the final punctuation, followed swiftly by a cry and him letting the rabbit's ear finally go free. She started to back up, but froze under Adam's glare. The demand to wait was clear in his eyes.

"Apologize."

"W-what?"

A couple students cringed at the much more audible snap. **"Apologize."** Cardin's team was conspicuously missing. The rest of Team RWAY started getting up: this was going way too far. Team JNPR was... less willing to interfere. Pyrrha did not want to cause a scene. Nora wanted to cause a bigger one.

"I-I-I'm sorry, alright! Just, please, just let my hand go! I won't bother her!"

"Apologize to _her!_ " The faunus didn't turn away from Adam's gaze only out of shock. Oh, she knew something like this was going to happen eventually. This was why she never told the rest of her team...

"I'm sorry, Velvet!" Cardin cried, and Adam let his wrist drop like a piece of trash. His aura washed over it before he could even hold it in his other hand. The wound would heal quickly. Adam narrowed his eyes, giving a last warning glare to his advancing team, then turned away. As Velvet took the time to run off, Adam noticed an all too familiar silence: one filled with tension, anger, and unspoken insults. The eyes of the entire cafeteria were on him, now. His team was approaching, now, but it was too late: Adam was riled up, now.

He dramatically swept his hand across the cafeteria. "Oh, so now, this is worth of your attention? Don't act like you all suddenly care for someone else's well-being! Your silence is the only reason it got this far! Like you care about _words_ instead of action!" Oh, how he relished this feeling: an entire crowd's blood turning cold with shame, like a bucket of ice water was thrown on all that hot anger flowing seconds prior. Adam took a breath and raised his hand, only for it to be yanked back down.

"O-o-okay, there, buddy!" Yang said, giving his wrist a brief squeeze. "I know you're seeing red, but don't go jumpin' up on the soapbox." His lips pursed, and his eyes found those of his team. Yang was grinning as always, but it was clearly stressed, and her eyes darted to and fro across the room in search of potential assailants. Weiss was already waiting at the door, clearly not wanting a single part of this. Typical. But, it was Ruby who finally got him to crack: her silver eyes were left full of shock, sadness and worry. Worry not for herself, but rather for _him._

The same worry Blake held.

"Fine." He snatched his hand away, unable to bring himself to look at his team. "They've heard enough." Adam forced himself to calmly walk away. It was best to keep control.

Even if he was running away from that judging gaze.

* * *

Velvet sighed and sat down beneath the shade of a perpetually-red tree at its outskirts. Atop a small hill, it had a commanding view of the endless colors the garden carried. A warm breeze brought the pleasant scent of roses to tickle at her nose. Though her enhanced hearing could still pick up the occasional crack of gunfire or burst of Dust magic from the students training or fighting in Forever Falls, it was still rather quiet. The beauty was lost on her. She was already used to it, by now: half of her lunches were spent here. Good timing could have her escape the majority of students—including those who were less than inclusive—during on-campus breakfast and dinners. Lunch, not so much.

And it was looking like she was going to be spending even more time here. Even now, dressed in her normal gear for the next combat training, she decided it was best to wait her free period out here and let things cool off. There was no way Cardin was going to leave her be, after that. If anything, it'd just draw more attention. It wasn't as if she didn't want to be helped—expected or not, seeing only one even willing to do so hurt—but, if anything, that might just drag Adam right in with it.

"Velvet." She jumped in place with a squeak. Speak of the devil. Adam stood just beside her, leaning against the tree. "Feeling alright?"

"Yeah, yeah... I'm used to it, by now." Velvet looked down towards the garden, arms on her knees. She wasn't sure how she felt about this: upset that it happened, angry at Adam for probably making it worse, thankful, ashamed. Velvet guessed that might've said a lot about how often anyone helped her, in the first place.

"Common occurrence?" She could hear the scowl in his voice. Her ears drooped lower. It was answer enough. "Cardin?" His boot scratched at the bark as he kicked off of the tree.

"No!" She flinched at how loudly that came out. "No, it's just... a few people. Two or three. That's all, though!" When Velvet looked up, Adam didn't look convinced. She glanced away. An awkward silence settled.

"... Thank you, though," Velvet brought herself to say. "Would you believe it's the first time someone stood up for me in the past two months?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Adam grunted.

Velvet couldn't help but giggle. "Well, either way, it did mean a lot..."

More silence. Just as Velvet began to speak again, however, she caught Adam suddenly turn to her out of the corner of her eye.

"You shouldn't be afraid to look me in the eye," he said.

Velvet forced herself to look at him. Frustration was written all across his furrowed brow and narrowed gaze. The grip on the weapon he always lugged around was tight and fierce. "It's not fear, it's just... I..." She forced a smile. "I'll be fine in the future, honest. You don't need to stick your neck out for me, Adam."

" 'Don't need to'?" Adam repeated with almost-offended incredulity. "We are _faunus_! We stick our necks out for each other, Velvet, no matter what. None of us should have to just sit there and accept being treated like dogs. We deserve better. _You_ deserve better."

"But that didn't help!" She bit her lip, trying to hold back words that'd already been spoken. Adam glared at her, and it only solidified her regret. She didn't want a fight... but now, she was forced to explain herself. "I've seen that kind of thing before, Adam. All that's going to happen is he's going to come back with more friends, or target some other faunus—"

"And I'll defend them, as well."

"You and I can't be everywhere, though!" Velvet sprung to her feet. "Unless you're walking around with the entire faunus population, he's going to find someone to take his anger out on."

The man tensed, and his emerald eyes briefly darkened to an angry orange before lightening up. His expression faded from one of growing frustration and anger to solemn acceptance. With a soft frown and a softer tone, he said, "I see. Then he must be... dissuaded further." Whatever intention was behind that tone, it sent chills up her spine, and certainly not the good kind.

"You aren't getting it, Adam. Whatever you do to defend me, he's probably just going to do to someone else, or worse! It's just... mindless escalation until someone's either hurt... or wearing a mask." That one left Adam gritting his teeth. "It's the same reason I don't tell my team. If it isn't me, it's someone else... and I'd rather have it be me."

Adam couldn't even believe what he was hearing. It was like talking once more to the miners so afraid of reprisal that they wouldn't so much as question lack of safety.

"Those words are the bonds that held us down for centuries! Do you think Cardin will just stop with you, or the next person, or the next after that? He will just continue spreading that hatred and ignorance further, to more humans who will crush more faunus! Can't you see, Velvet? We cannot lie down and simply take it! We have to fight back!" He slammed his fist to his chest. "It's the only way we've ever made it through, and that won't change! _You_ are the upperclassman, _you_ are the one who should be in control!"

"Fighting fire with fire will never make it better! It's just more hate and fear and ignorance." Velvet took a deep breath to calm herself and turned her gaze once more to the ground. "It's just like the White Fang... it's the entire reason I even left Menagerie. Hatred and anger won't help anyone..."

She could feel Adam's glare boring down into her.

_"Weak words for weaker people,"_ he hissed.

Now, it was Velvet's turn to tense. "So, is that what this is? You just think I'm weak, huh?"

Adam said nothing, but his silence said enough: if she so truly believed the best way to stop oppression was to lie down and take it with a smile, well... he'd seen plenty of leaders like her.

Without bringing her eyes back to his, she turned on her heel and marched off deeper into the Forever Falls.

Adam sneered. "Running away?"

Velvet stared at him over her shoulder, brown eyes carrying a certain determination behind them that, briefly, gave Adam pause. "No, I'm just proving a point. Are you coming?" She kept her gaze level, daring him to refuse.

When faced with that, Adam had no choice but to accept, following behind her without a word.

If Adam wanted her to stand up to herself, Velvet thought, fine. She'd start with him.

* * *

"Well?" Adam stared down Velvet, his arms crossed. The two stood in a grove surrounded by trees, every gust of wind leaving only more of the forever red leaves tumbling to the ground around them. "Go ahead. Prove it, then."

Velvet retrieved a large case from her waist. "First to a single, solid hit."

Adam rolled his eyes. How arbitrary.

"You seem awfully confident... how about we make things more interesting, then? You win, and I'll admit you're right. I'll even take Cardin down a peg the next time he tries something. But if _I_ win... then you have to give peace a chance."

He scoffed. "It never works."

To that, Velvet only smiled. "Don't lose, then~"

Adam rolled his shoulders and flicked his hat away. "Fine. I accept your challenge. Let's make this quick." He glared down at Velvet as, rather than take whatever weapon was within the case out, she daintily set it off to her side. As if she didn't need it. He was just about to toss his own weapon aside when Velvet held a hand up.

"Don't. You'll need it." This was certainly a lot of _very aggravating_ confidence coming from this girl. "Besides, ammo for that costs too much. Trust me." Her proceeding to draw a small, light-blue, likely expensive Dust crystal from a pack at her waist did not help his growing annoyance. "Whenever you're ready..."

But, he was better than to fall to his own tricks. There was no point in taking this too seriously... besides, he could end this in a swift stroke. Red grass shifted under boots as both fell into defensive stances. For a second, the only sound was the whistling of wind through trees.

Adam was behind Velvet in the blink of an eye, walking away from her and flicking his hand back to tap her head. Only a chance glance back, however, stopped him from making a critical error.

Rather than being caught unaware, Velvet was already twisting to face him. In fact, her foot was also flying towards his head. Barely a fraction of a second to adjust himself, Adam spread his feet wide and strengthened his stance, blocking her strike and saving himself from what would've been humiliation. She was quick, but he wasn't going to let a good prediction stop him.

Adam threw her leg back and turned to throw kick of his own at Velvet, forcing her to leap away. She had barely even touched the ground before he was sliding across the grass foot-first. Her stance would be weaker, less steady. They could accelerate and move faster than cars, but gravity was a constant. It'd be an assured trip.

At least, so he thought, for as Velvet hopped up again and snapped a lightning-fast kick at him, Adam was forced to jerk his head back and finish his slide on his back. She missed by barely an inch, scattering blades of grass across his face.

So, then she was fast and clever.

Grunting in annoyance, he kicked off of a tree to maintain his momentum and the offensive. She ducked beneath a roundhouse as he came back towards her and parried a palm strike when he landed, only confirming his observation. So, Adam decided to defeat her in a contest of endurance, throwing kick after kick, strike after strike in a flurry of blows he'd trained in using countless times. He learned two things. The first was that Velvet was most definitely a kickboxer like him.

The second was that they had disturbingly similar fighting styles. It was like fighting a mirror: even her _stance_ was identical. She matched each blow, each feint, until the strikes left his leg feeling numb even through his aura. Only his final, forceful kick got past her guard, forcing her to block with her arms and slamming her back into a tree.

Velvet lowered her guard and winked. Was she daring to _mock_ him?

His rational mind warned him that he was getting drawn in just as Yang was with him. All the way down to trying to teach this third-year a 'lesson'... but that didn't matter, now. Adam saw _red._

He pulled Blush's trigger, sending Wilt out in a blur almost unrecognizable in the bright-red surroundings with him right behind it. Its hilt, even his follow-up slashes normally faster than his usual opponents could see, were both blocked by a pulsing, sky-blue wall of force.

The glow of the crystal in Velvet's hand flickered, and the shield shattered under a final blow. She raised an eyebrow. "Finally taking me seriously? Good."

Wilt swung out and was back in its sheath three times in a single second. Each time, Velvet slipped and slid by as graceful as the wind, inching ever closer through his guard until she'd grown close enough to attack. Adam hadn't seen when she'd grabbed a red Dust crystal, but the roar of flames around her incoming punch was not a good sign.

Even when blocking with Wilt, the explosive force sent him skidding backwards. His foot caught on a root. Adam's balance precariously shifted backwards. His sight turned skyward. He was falling, and that would be it. Failure. Just like that.

Adam refused. With a grunt of exertion and pain from fighting gravity and inertia alike, he flared his aura and forced himself to stand. Not one more inch backwards! She might've been stronger than he'd believed—he dared think to himself that she'd proven her point—but his _pride_ wouldn't let him go down like this.

By the time he'd focused, the space between them was full of flames. Some snaked through the air in erratic patterns, others were brutish fireballs meant to bowl him over. He could jump back and force her to lose sight in the trees. He could dive and take cover. But he was a man of his word. _Not one more inch backwards!_

Scorching heat licked and lapped at Adam's skin and clothes as he sprinted forward into the inferno. Body twisting around and between each orb and spear of fire he could dodge and cutting clean through those he could not, he advanced without breaking step nor losing speed. He was rewarded with the look of Velvet wide-eyed and mouth agape as he plunged through a final fireball, the end of his sheath lunging for her.

Instinct took over for Velvet, and she hurriedly raised her arms in front of her face. The fire Dust crystal, bright and flickering from the constant use dropped from her hand.

Unfortunately for both, it was the crystal that the point of Adam's sheath struck.

With a sharp crack and explosive wave of force, the nearly-spent crystal shattered, all its remaining energy used to blast the two of them away from each other. Adam crashed into the grass and tumbled across the dirt until he could flip up to his feet. He rose up to only find a shroud of smoke. Gasping for air, Adam wiped away the sweat on his forehead and waited. Waited to see if Velvet would have the nerve to call that their solid hit, or if she would wrongfully concede. On the other side of that shroud, he was sure Velvet was doing the same.

She was panting on the other side, but said nothing. They had their answer: neither were content with ending it at that.

Leaves crunched under Velvet's foot while she crept along the perimeter of the smoke and flame. Unlike the rest of her spells, that burst was uncontrolled. She couldn't just have it put itself out like she did for the rest. Besides, she had Dust, she could put it out in an instant... even if she might have to do some explaining, later.

She might've gotten carried away a little—

Velvet jerked her head out of the Wilt's way as it shot towards her, crimson blade so close she could briefly see her reflection on its polished side and feel the heat from its Dust-powered propulsion on her cheek. The smoke ahead burst open just long enough for a black blur to slip through. Velvet twisted on her heel, nimbly withdrew another fire crystal from her pouch and raised her other hand. Adam's swing cracked off of yet another shield of light, but he was already in the middle of his next swing by the time she'd noticed.

Their bout next to the swaying smoke was less a fight and more a dance, each swaying and twirling out of the way of the other's blows. So close that their footwork threatened to have them stepping on the other's toes—a tactic both also tried and failed at—they evaded crimson flashes of a blade, sharp kicks, thrusts of energetic shields and jabs that left darts of controlled flame in their wake. Neither wanted to risk blocking, now: it was a game of speed and endurance ever increasing, with either unable to break their gaze from the other for more than a fraction of a second.

Velvet's shield shattered. The force knocked both crystals from her hands, spent and colorless already. Adam saw his chance. Turning and bringing all the momentum of their dance into a final twist, he swung Wilt out for the finishing, aura-pumped blow.

He never saw Velvet snatching up a final pair of crystals.

She lifted her hand towards his blade, and he felt his blade grow heavy. A purple crystal. Gravity.

Adam's eyes followed his swing passing low beneath Velvet's chest. He missed. The force, amplified but now aimless, struck out with such force that it whipped away the smoke and flame beside them in a rush of wind. Adam was distracted by the burst, but only momentarily. His eyes had snapped back to Velvet before his swing had even finished. He could salvage this. He let the momentum take him, turning his entire form so that his rifle would turn to her.

Velvet's fist buried itself in his gut. The breath was driven from him. Wilt flew from his hand into a tree behind him.

He'd lost.

Catching his breath, Adam stumbled a few steps back, eyes wide. Had that just happened?

"W-well..." Velvet was left panting as well, though the confidence was unmistakable in her tall stature and subtle cock of her hips. "You're... _way_ stronger than I thought you'd be."

"... Likewise," Adam mumbled. He was still in shock. Had he just lost to someone who couldn't even protect herself from a schoolyard bully?

"Don't forget our bet, now... and _also_ don't forget that just because someone isn't," she giggled, " 'kicking ass and taking names,' as Coco would say, doesn't mean that they _can't._ " Velvet strolled up and teasingly flicked Adam's nose, snapping him out of his daze. He couldn't even bring himself to be angry. Adam was plenty of things, right now: impressed, devastated, confused, amazed, frustrated... but not angry. It was rare.

Adam had forced himself out of his thoughts just long enough to tear Wilt out from the tree it had buried itself inside, when Velvet held his hat out towards him. "Does anyone in your team know that you're a faunus?"

He shook his head. "Not yet." His horns were once more covered up by the homburg. "They'll figure it out eventually—it's not a great disguise—but, maybe I'll tell them, in time."

Velvet frowned a little and knitted her brow in thought. Finally, she sighed. "If you say so..."

The two soon parted, Velvet carrying a bounce in her step and confidence in her smile, Adam's gaze turned down and mind churning in thought. Neither were noticed in the students passing along to their next classes, lost in the river of man and faunus alike.

* * *

"Absolutely not!" The Schnee's shrieks were never going to stop getting on his nerves, Adam swore as they and the rest of the team lingered in one of Beacon's halls. "I don't care what you were doing or if combat training is next, you're at least changing into a different uniform. I'm not having my partner strutting around reeking of sweat and ash like some filthy _animal!_ " The sneer was even heard in her voice.

_Animal._

Adam gritted his teeth and stalked away before doing something the Schnee would regret.

He knew that humans like her would no doubt find his true nature to accept, however, it would be revealed inevitably. Hate it as he might, even if solely for the insults he knew he would fail to weather from that Schnee girl, Adam would tell have to tell them on his own terms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes, the all too common 'edgy new guy stops Velvet from being bullied' trope/cliche in action, but I'm hoping that this can be taken in perhaps a newer direction, especially with CFVY's higher importance to the plot.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


	8. Defrosting

** Defrosting **

* * *

This was not his own terms.

"W-wait, no! Get off!" The urgent yet hushed sound of Yang's voice woke Adam up in the middle of the night. Without thinking, years of instinct had him springing up to a sitting position, flaring his aura and snatching up Wilt from his side.

**CRACK!**

Years of instinct built up _without_ him having ever slept in a bunk bed.

As Adam groaned from the fierce pain and reached up to rub his head, he noticed that the entire room had become silent. Turning his eyes to the center of the room, instead of seeing however the Schnee reacted, emerald eyes met lilac and silver. Ruby and Yang leaned over Yang's bed, staring at him upside-down in a mix of curiosity and wariness. Blonde and red hair formed a curtain that obscured the room beyond. The girls had actually suggested, once, that he leave a blanket draped down from Yang's bed onto his own so that he wouldn't need to leave the room every time they needed a little privacy. Adam had refused: knowing his surroundings as he slept was worth the inconvenience.

Ruby and Yang were content to just stare. Adam, not so much.

He scowled and narrowed his eyes. "What was that noise?" he asked calmly, yet the cold edge in his tone was unmistakable.

The two girls looked between each other and awkwardly chuckled. "Well... ya see, Ruby and I got into a little argument, and it got a little heated, so it kinda became a..." Yang trailed off for a brief moment, and Adam arched an eyebrow. Strange. Over the course of the past two months, he'd believed the two of them to be all but inseparable, let alone how bizarrely cheerful the two were at all times. Could they really have started fighting?

"Tickle fight."

Oh. Of course. Of _course_ it was.

"A tickle fight at..." The Moon was halfway between the top of the window's frame and the horizon, which made it... "Three in the morning." How the Schnee girl was asleep, right now, he hadn't the slightest clue.

"It was a _really_ heated argument!" Ruby protested against Adam's agitation.

He closed his eyes and sighed: maybe he was getting a little too jumpy. These girls were going to drive him insane. "Fine, fine, just... keep it quiet or keep it away from _me._ " With that, Adam laid his head back down to sleep.

Or, at least, he would have, if he did not instead find his head jerking painfully forward and the rest of his body not budging. Grunting, he reached up towards his hair, and froze as his fingers brushed across splintered wood.

Oh no.

He frantically searched across his hair with his fingers, bringing them across his horn to find...

Oh no, no, no.

His horns were stuck in the bed frame.

Eyes wide, he tried to see if Yang and Ruby were still there. They weren't. Excellent. He could still hear them mumbling, but he could work with that. Sisters or not, he doubted they were going to stay—or fit—on that bed, so time was limited. If either noticed him still sitting up, they'd start asking questions.

He tried rocking his head and wriggling his horns to free them, but to no avail. They weren't moving! How was he going to get them out silently! Adam's mind went into overdrive, and his cheeks grew red with frustration and embarrassment both: this kind of thing hadn't happened since he was a child! This brought new meaning to the word demeaning! This incident would inevitably become stuck in his mind, rising at the poorest of times! This infuriated him to no end! This... this...

This room was silent, again.

Adam froze. With dread, he turned his eyes towards the center of the room.

Emerald eyes met silver once more.

"Adam, are you..."

"I'm fine!" he barked in a much more shrill fashion than he wanted, but, years of honing his aggression still got the point across perfectly. Too perfectly, he immediately decided as, while Ruby vanished back to the bed above, a particularly angry Yang dropped back down into view.

"I know we woke you up, but that's no reason to shout..." The building rage faded from her eyes just as her words faded from her mouth. "... Adam, what's with your... hair..." The silence, this time, lasted far too long.

"Are... you a faunus?" Ruby's voice, innocent and curious, quietly called to him from above. His eyes remained locked onto Yang's. More ice than the Schnee could ever summon fell into his stomach as he saw her mouth twitch. Then again. Then, it grew into a devious grin.

"Are you _stuck?_ "

Adam grimaced and tried to hide beneath the quiet that permeated through the room.

Yang flipped herself off of the bed and was quick to lean over towards him. "What was that?" she asked.

 _"Yes,"_ he hissed.

"Sorry, couldn't hear you~"

"YES!" Adam roared, his cheeks as red as Ruby's coat, his frustration and embarrassment overriding his desire to stay collected, and his loyal Wilt burning inside of its sheath. He withheld his groan as he saw the Schnee finally rise from her bed and yank something—earplugs, so _that_ was how she stayed asleep—out from her ears. As Yang collapsed to the floor in uproarious laughter, their gaze met. Shock, anger, disdain and understanding all flashed across her eyes before she settled simply on narrowing them at him. Adam prepared to fire back with everything he had, and then she... put her earplugs back in and laid down with a sigh.

In his shock, he almost forgot that Yang and now Ruby were both laughing.

"Would you two just STOP!" Yang's laughter, at least, faded, and her face fell flat. Just before Adam could feel a shred of his dignity return, her face split into that dreaded grin again.

She took her sweet time strolling closer and sat down on the side of his bed. "Ooooh, I see, you don't _need_ any help, right? You're the big bad Adam, _surely_ you aren't stuck at all, and I can just hop ri~ight back into bed. You'll be fine!" Ignoring Adam's protests, she slipped off his bed and sprung back up into her own. The sharp jerk and vibration of the board his horns were stuck in only hurt and infuriated him more.

"Are you sure we shouldn't help? He looks a little mad..." Ruby mumbled, the thought of sleep now having thoroughly left the minds of the three.

"Pfft, what makes you think that?" Yang closed her eyes, crossed her legs and flicked them up onto the foot board. Ruby looked down at the positively seething Adam wriggling and bucking his head back in a desperate attempt to free himself without causing damage. But Adam wasn't just seething.

"Well, he's kinda... glowing?" Sure enough, his rage had built to the point where his Semblance was bleeding through: cold, blood-red light emanated from the bed beneath them, pouring from his hair and turning his eyes the color of blood. Yang peeked an eye open.

"Get. Off. The bed," Adam commanded.

"And why should we do that? You've got it handled, _right,_ Red Bull?"

"I'm cutting it down." In a flurry of rose petals, Ruby was already atop her bed.

Yang crossed her arms, not budging one bit. "Nuh-uh. I don't believe you." She heard the subtle _click_ of his blade being drawn. "... Buuut, that doesn't mean I won't see if I can get you some help, anyway! C'mon Ruby, someone has to know about how to get something unstuck!" Yang said with an awkward chuckle, and the two of them were off before Adam could make good on his threat. Adam, however, was fully prepared to just slice the bed in twain and deal with the consequences later.

"You're not going to get anywhere just jerking it around like that," the Schnee girl spoke up. Trying to bring his eyes to hers, Adam only found that she had her back turned towards him. She must've seen his silence as reason to continue.

"Move it slower, but you might need a little bit of red dust to burn it out, if they aren't sensitive." Stuck between losing his pride as a faunus and losing his dignity as everything else, Adam grimaced, and chose his dignity. Slowly, but surely, he rocked his horns out, unfortunately needing to spend one of his premium dust cartridges for Blush to burn away some of the wood, after all. Free at last, Adam let out a deep sigh of relief and dropped his head down onto his pillow.

Silence.

"That's an odd thing to know," Adam commented. For a moment, he wondered if the Schnee had fallen back asleep while he freed himself from that dreaded bed.

"I... had a couple problems with Myrtenaster, when I first used it." He could faintly hear the smile in her voice. Perhaps it was due to Adam venting his frustration at the bed, but he felt a surprising lack of contempt for Schnee. Adam could still feel it there, lurking, unable to die just as he was unable to forget, and yet...

"Thanks." He could see her jolt and tilt her head back just enough to look in his direction. She let out a mirthless chuckle.

"Don't." Adam arched an eyebrow. With a snort, he was set to leave it at that, but the Schnee flicked her hand back towards him, and something gleamed in the moonlight as it flew through the air. Instinct had Adam swipe it before he even recognized that something was thrown at all. He—slowly—sat up and opened his hand. It was another pair of earplugs.

" _Now_ you can thank me." Schnee chimed, and none too soon, for the door was promptly thrown open, and in came Ruby and Yang carrying handfuls of what looked like everything from butter to soap to popcorn.

"Awww, he already got out..." Yang huffed.

"Well, more for us!" Ruby cheered and, grinning, jumped up onto her bed with an armful of food. Were they just planning to watch him? Adam snorted in agitation and laid his head down, closing his eyes just as Yang sprung back up to her own bed. He'd need to work on it again, tomorrow, to make it higher...

"So, yeah, what was I saying? Ooh yeah! I never saw a guy squeal so loud, before! Cardin's got a set of lungs like you wouldn't _believe!_ " Certain that the two wouldn't be going to going to sleep any time soon, Adam looked down at his earplugs, slipped them in, and drifted off to a pleasant slumber.

"Thanks, Weiss." He murmured under his breath. Across the room, Weiss smiled and put her own plugs back in. A girl needed her beauty sleep, after all.

* * *

"Sooooo," Yang woke him up the next day as Ruby left for her shower. Adam grumbled, shook his earplugs out and blearily opened an eye.

"Does being a bull faunus come with any _other_ perks?~" She actually _winked_ at him. He heard a scandalized scoff behind Yang from the Schnee, and only stared blankly at her before turning himself right back over.

One month down, forty-seven to go.

_Wonderful._

* * *

It was Team CFVY's idea that they should actually try to spend more time together as a team, rather than just Ruby and Yang. For a month, he had remained fine with keeping to himself and his classes. The only times he'd break from his rigid schedule to make sure that the Schnee wasn't bothering Ruby again—something that no longer seemed to be an issue. His detachment had grown to the point where he was surprised to see that JNPR had joined them for lunch, one day, and was even more surprised when he was told they'd done so for the past week.

Though, the two sisters decided without his input that it was because he was too busy talking with Velvet, who had also decided to sit with them.

Eventually, after some needling from the faunus girl, he'd folded and decided to give them a try. At least for a week. That was two weeks ago. It was as he sat on the floor with Ruby and Yang, playing some strategy game simply called 'Remnant' with them that Adam realized, with dawning horror, that he was actually beginning to enjoy spending time with the two sisters.

Were they overly happy and optimistic? Yes. Did he really miss having personal space around the two? Also yes. But, they were a breath of fresh air. Frankly, not counting his time with Blake, most of his time as a teenager was spent commanding or forcing himself to fit in with people well above his age. Ilia was a brief exception, but her agreements with Ghira's cowardice had left their friendship... strained.

It left little time for relaxation, let alone genuine friendships.

The Schnee, however, did not fold as he did. She preferred her studies even now, lingering at her desk with her books while they played. As Ruby jumped up in victory at wiping half of Yang's forces out in a failed invasion on Vale—even if it was at Adam's suggestion—the Schnee grunted and slammed her textbook shut, snapping the three out of their reverie.

"Can't you three do that somewhere else? Maybe where people _aren't studying?_ " She hissed with a surprising amount of venom for such a minor incident.

"No one ever said you had to study here, _Princess_ ," Adam growled on instinct, not even needing to think. The Schnee's fist clenched tight, and without another word, she snatched up her books, got up with enough force to send the chair clattering to the ground, and stormed off. Perhaps it was just his keen sight, however, but Adam noticed something odd when her eyes narrowed into a familiar glare and her nose crinkled in anger. Beneath the usual indignant rage was just the smallest hint of pain.

Oh well.

It was only after a few more turns that Yang finally suggested, albeit halfheartedly. "So... should we... see what's wrong with her, or something?" Both her and Adam looked over at Ruby: as far as they knew, she was the only one who was getting close to her.

"... What?"

"I thought you were her new friend!"

"Well... uh..." Ruby's eyes darted around the room. "Heeeey, Adam, you're her partner, why don't you—"

"No." The fact that he hadn't succumbed to his White Fang instincts and strangled her to death should've been worthy of an award.

"Aw, come on! This should be easy!" Yang clapped a hand on his shoulder.

At first, Adam didn't even spare it a thought, instead glancing down at his cards and contemplating his next move in the game. Right up until he remembered his little 'bet' with Velvet. Give peace a chance...

He sighed: this was absolutely foolish, but something told him unless he dragged Ruby along with him, she wasn't going to try and talk to an angry Schnee, and Yang might just make matters worse after her petulance ticks her off. With a shake of his head, he got up, grabbed Wilt from his bed and threw his hat on.

"Fine, I'll go." It'd certainly be enough to shake off Velvet's needling. More importantly, when this ended exactly as he thought this would, he could prove the strategy's failing to Velvet.

"Don't worry, Adam, I'll take your turns! I'll defend the gates of Mistral with my life!" Ruby brought her hand across her chest, saluting with a sunny grin. Adam snorted as he reached the door.

"If I lose, you're getting court-martialed."

* * *

None of this was fair!

Weiss sprung off of a glyph and dug her rapier through the training dummy ahead, then kicked off of it to flip behind and slash another across the chest at her rear. Her books laid scattered and forgotten beside the entrance.

She wasn't the one that started physical fights with her own team! She was the first to sit with those two sisters! First to really accept Ruby as a leader! First to offer the olive branch!

Weiss twirled in time with the natural rhythm of combat and sent a ray of Dust to freeze the arms of another target.

What did she get for her trouble and sacrifices? She got shoved aside for that _faunus_ , Adam!

She was half an inch off of her strikes. Awful. Weiss returned to her starting stance and took a deep breath.

And of _course_ he was a faunus. Frankly, Weiss felt a fool for never noticing that staring her right in the face. Adam was cruel, but even more so with just her. The first time they'd even spoke was him insulting her with her family name. The hat. Getting along with Velvet. Being so... rough around the edges. Of course he'd hate her if he was a faunus. Of course she'd have no chance to get closer: she lost that before it even began.

Her glyph was a fraction too large: it'd be an easy target to strike in a fight. Weiss returned to her starting stance once more. Again. She'd do this routine until she was perfect. Irreplaceable.

It was the only choice she had left. With Adam having somehow managed to slip his way in with the sisters before she could, there was no doubt that he would turn them against her. Frankly, it'd already begun. Weiss knew how this kind of thing worked, and cursed herself for not getting in first while she could. The problem was just that... she didn't know what to do. What to say.

She'd observed enough to know how friendships worked—such was how she knew how Adam's growing influence would be a problem—just not how they started. Her childhood was being fawned over by private tutors, business partners and politicians, then being expected to fit in just fine with them. Contact with others of her age were with other heirs and to-be influential people. Networking, nothing more, nothing less. More people to put on airs around. More to impress.

It left little time for relaxation, let alone genuine friendships.

Weiss snarled, caring little for how unladylike she looked. She'd missed one of the dummies altogether. She was slipping! Weiss reset the dummies' positions and, as she had many times already, returned to her starting position. She raised her rapier, formed a glyph to speed her up, took her first step, right foot first—

"Your stance is too rigid." Weiss nearly stumbled and fell on the spot. She turned a dirty look at the interloper. Adam.

She refused to give him the victory of seeing her scowl.

"If the only reason you came here was to insult me, you can turn and leave, now. I get it." She did not give him the chance to respond, instead thrusting at a dummy to begin her routine all over again. She'd managed to have a few seconds to herself, able to cut her way through her imagined foes to the invisible rhythm of battle she kept in her mind. Weiss had even believed that Adam had actually listened to her for once and left, right up until a crimson blade lashed out from beside her without warning, knocking Myrtenaster out of her hands.

Disbelief came over her face, and her aura roared to life in preparation to defend herself.

But, when Myrtenaster clattered to the ground, no second attack came. Adam snorted in derision, and by the time Weiss snapped around to face him, his blade was already back in its sheath.

"You said you were studying; why are you here, instead?" She growled in annoyance at Adam's continued criticism and reached for her blade, but Adam took a calm step and rested his foot on top of it. So then, he was forcing the issue.

"What does it matter? I'm getting better. That's all you care about, isn't it?" Weiss crossed her arms, clearly just wanting this over and done with. Adam only glared at her until she was forced to speak again or continue to live in tense silence.

"If I can barely have a team, then I need to make sure I'm the best on my own." More silence. She growled. "What do you want from me!"

To Adam, it was a good question: he wouldn't have come here if he hadn't made that bet, so he supposed a better one to ask would have been what Ruby and Yang wanted out of this. They probably shouldn't have sent him to deal with these emotions. He was a bit... blunt. As he watched the Schnee, taking in the suspicious lack of malice for a faunus like himself in her eyes, the turn of her body away and flick of her eyes down to her weapon showing her simple desire to escape, and her fists balled tightly enough to look pale even against her light skin, Adam grew curious. He believed he knew what Ruby and Yang wanted to know.

"Why are you always angry?" Adam didn't even bother slipping in one of the numerous insults he could have added.

The Schnee gaped at him. "Excuse me? Why am _I_ so angry? Coming from the one who spends all his time brooding, scowling or finding another way to insult me?" she threw back at him with indignation.

"You didn't answer me."

"Why should I! What do you care, anyway? It's been over a _month,_ Adam. Over a month, and all I hear from you is 'Schnee' this, 'Princess' that. Even _Yang_ slipped and called me 'Schnee', once! We're supposed to be partners, but you just stand there and treat me like I'm your worst enemy. Shouldn't I be just a _little_ angry that you've managed to turn the team against me when I'm supposed to be entrusting my life to you? In fact, here's a better question that you never answered: what have _I_ done to _you?_ " The Schnee stomped closer, face red with growing frustration. It was as if she had not heard him the first time, like she'd completely forgotten the sins of her family.

Adam shifted his jaw and forced down the numerous shots he could've taken at her family. "What do you want?"

The heiress wrinkled her nose in agitation at not being answered, then took a deep breath, stepped back and crossed her arms. "I want a chance," she replied simply.

Adam raised an eyebrow. "... A chance."

"Yes, Adam, a chance. A chance to actually get close to my team, and a chance to actually have the people I fight alongside be my friends, too. Including you." Adam's first response came out faster than he could think: he laughed derisively. She must've been delusional to think he would ever befriend a Schnee! She had outright lost her mind! She... looked so dejected.

It was brief, for not even a second before it fell to an ice-cold glare, but Adam could still see it. His laughter died out. This would only cause the problem of her anger to grow greater, and even though he'd love to see another body added to the Schnee mausoleum, if her wrath caused her to become distracted and fall in battle, it would only drag him down too. That was why Adam decided to take a different route.

That's what he told himself, anyway. That brief look of pain had nothing to do with it...

Adam silently kicked her rapier back up to her.

"Your grip is too loose. Did you have a trainer? Sparring partners?" She frowned and her glare intensified, but she remained silent as she walked back to her starting position and readied herself.

"One." Were he a lesser man, Adam might have actually been put off by just how frigid her tone was, even in something so simple. Instead, he only hummed and began walking away. He stopped on the other side of the hall and turned, unsheathing Wilt.

"As I thought. Let's change that." Adam readied his blade. The Schnee tilted her head in confusion and, slowly but surely, he could see the ice in her eyes already beginning to thaw.

She raised her rapier.

"Is fighting the _only_ way you can connect to people?" she asked, her lips quirking upwards into a smile she so desperately tried to hide.

Adam matched her expression. "Possibly."

They lunged.

* * *

"If no one personally trained you, how did you learn? I would have expected the Schnees to be able to afford the best of the best." Adam's curiosity had gotten the best of him as they parted from yet another clashing of blades. She huffed and jumped off of a glyph past him.

"I don't appreciate—" She hurled a number of ice shards to force Adam to roll out of the way. "Talking while I work!" Wilt suddenly launched itself from Adam's sheath. While she could dodge the blade itself, she couldn't be so quick when Adam all but appeared at her side to snatch the blade from the air and slash at her. Forced into close combat, they traded blows.

"If you cannot fight while distracted, you'll never survive." When she didn't respond, Adam lashed out with his foot at her wrist, knocking her rapier from her hand. The next kick struck her cheek, throwing her down right next to it. Adam enjoyed that a little more than what he would consider to be healthy.

"Your grip is still loose," he chastised her as he sheathed his blade. Schnee only rolled her eyes, mumbling something about him being 'such a brute' while she retrieved her weapon.

"If you must know, I spent most of my time battling against androids and practicing routines. My father did not exactly want me to become a Huntress in the first place." She got to her feet and brushed herself off. "I'm not stupid, I could see when he was trying to interfere when every trainer _coincidentally_ had a full class."

"And what of simply finding others to fight with?"

She scoffed at that one. "Would _you_ want to be the one trying to beat up the heiress to the entire Schnee Dust Company?" The two stared at one another. "... Don't answer that."

Adam merely held a hand up in his defense.

* * *

Weiss kept a better grip on Myrtenaster, this time: his kick towards her wrist was instead responded to by a point-blank burst of ice that sent him flying across the grounds. Adam rolled back up to his feet just in time to block a stab aimed at his chest.

"And what about you, hm?" she asked him. "Who taught you how to fight?" Adam was lucky: had this been even two weeks prior, he might have even spoken Branwen's name. Now, however, he knew just how much trouble it could cause with the never-mentioned daughter on his own team.

He smirked and forced her back with a series of swift swings. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Let's just say my trainer was a rather odd woman and leave it at that."

"You can't keep all these secrets forever, Adam..." Her rapier thrust not at him but the ground, sending ice suddenly rushing across it and his feet alike, freezing him in place. Schnee turned her weapon's cylinder.

"I have more secrets than you can imagine, Schnee."

She let out a laugh and lunged forward.

"How dramatic."

* * *

"You never answered my question, you know," the heiress mentioned at random when they—she—ran out of energy to keep taking out their frustrations through combat. When had he started talking so languidly with a Schnee? It only truly clicked in Adam's head, now, as the two lounged on a bench and sipped from water bottles, just how much this went against everything he'd once fought for.

Seeing Adam's silence as a motion to continue, she went on: "What did I—no, what did my _family—_ do to you to have you attack me so much?"

He wordlessly turned his eyes towards hers. After a couple moments, he just drained his bottle and stood up. "It might pay to glance at one of those 'faunus-sympathizing' articles, some time. Perhaps in time I'll tell you, but for now, just know that they did enough." Adam walked off towards the door, just now remembering that the game of Remnant he was playing was likely long over.

"Another one of your little secrets?" she tried to joke, but the crimson glare Adam threw over his shoulder choked out any humor she might have been going for. In that brief glance there was far more anger than she had seen in even Yang's at her most livid. In a way, she saw a connection between the two. Their eyes both turned red with anger, yet while Yang's were fiery and bright, Adam's was darker. Dull. The difference between freshly-spilled blood and a stain, deep-seated and old.

It didn't bode well for what that 'secret' of his might've been. Yet, it left her curious, still: what had happened?

"... Are you coming, or do you plan on just sitting there?" In the time she was mulling that over, Adam was already leaning against the doorframe, having already grabbed her books.

Weiss huffed and crossed her arms. "I was thinking! Perhaps you should try it, some time."

Adam only rolled his eyes.


	9. Cardinal Sin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm a day late, nearly overslept for work.

Two and a half months had passed, now, and no longer could Adam lie to himself: he was starting to see RWAY as his team, and its members as his partners... even if Ozpin had not seen them fit to remove CFVY's influence, just yet. What had started as a small reassurance towards Ruby to combat Weiss's whining about not being the leader had become genuine suggestions and bonding over the idea of leadership itself.

Yang might've been adamant in slipping out of more fights with him after her single victory, but she was still the one he found himself talking to the most, even if she was equally as insistent at teasing him. Especially about Velvet-related matters.

Even Weiss, the _Schnee_ , had become his primary sparring partner, and while it would be difficult to call them friends even without the sneaking suspicion both held contempt for what the other truly was, they were definitely closer than they were during initiation. Weiss had her grating moments—there was no doubt about that—but ever since they'd offered each other the olive branch, she'd become polite. Nice, even. She'd begun hanging out with Ruby more often, as well, and escaped Yang's watchful eye. Adam supposed that, to them, if even he could get along with Weiss, there must be _something_ redeemable about her.

Even if, after the two finally returned that night, Yang didn't let go of her personal theory that there was more than redeeming going on.

Yes, maybe he really was beginning to see RWAY as... friends.

"Pfft, I don't have a clue why _you_ thought you were going to win against him, Weiss. You take the bull by the horns, and it just might take you for a ride~" Hm, maybe 'acquaintances' was better.

"Weiss, watch! I can fit this whole strawberry up my nose!" Well, just saying that he cared for them was a step, wasn't it?

"Aw come on, it's a _good_ thing you didn't become the leader, Adam! We wouldn't have wanted all our plans to go _AWRY_ , right?"

...

He tolerated them.

* * *

** Cardinal Sin  
**

* * *

In a strange way, Adam almost considered Ruby his student. Someone to protect while Yang wasn't around for her. A shy, clumsy girl two years younger than her peers at the _least_? Who fought the minimum amount of combat training battles and didn't show off? An outstandingly easy target for humans wanting to boost their pride by stomping on others.

Which was why the first thing that Adam noticed was that Ruby had started wearing her cloak even as part of her school uniform. He'd asked Yang about it on a whim, but she'd waved it off.

"It's fine," she had said, "I expected her to start wearing it eventually, anyway. She's had it since she was a kid! It's sorta like a... mobile security blanket." She chuckled. "Just don't tell Rubes I called it that."

A security blanket. He didn't know why, but he was not all that trusting in Yang's belief that it was just the stress of additional classes getting to her.

So, Adam decided to take matters into his own hands. His mind was very keen on reminding him of the absurdity of his situation: a former White Fang member following around this human, teenage student not for information or for an ambush, but to keep her safe. Two months had softened him to this extent. That was... substantially worrying, but it was a problem for later.

He crouched down atop one of the many long dormitories of Beacon, hand at his brow and eyes faintly glowing from the aura he channeled into them. Ruby was a sniper, and a smart one. Her even spotting a familiar face across a football field wouldn't have been entirely out of the picture... if she were focused. Instead, with her head down and her eyes locked to the books she carried in her hands, she was anything but. Ruby had no clue he was here. Adam knew his intuition was right: something was wrong.

From the smattering of students walking along the paths, a pack of four broke off, and any doubt Adam had was wiped clean from his mind. Team CRDL("Cardinal"). _Cardin._ Adam sneered as the leader clapped a hand on Ruby's shoulder and led her away from the main road while his teammates relieved her of her books. From this distance, trying to hear would be an exercise in futility even with his aura. All he could rely on were his eyes.

And they saw a situation just growing worse and worse. Cardin kept a tight arm around Ruby. Sweeping hand motion, feral grin. Signs of confidence. Ruby, on the other hand, looked like she was trying to look as small as possible. She fidgeted with her hands. Never met his gaze. Adam didn't understand: Ruby was surely stronger than that overgrown thug of a human. Not to mention that, considering her tale of how she got in here in the first place, she was no stranger to defending herself. She wasn't Velvet.

Even with the rest of CRDL lurking around her like a pack of hyenas, it answered nothing. Their team could crush them. Annihilate them. It would barely be a challenge for him alone: RWAY combined would pick them apart. So, what was it? What did Cardin have over Ruby? Blackmail? Threats against family? Threats against her reputation—

Cardin flicked out his Scroll and snapped it open in a fluid movement. Adam squinted, but even with his control over aura, he couldn't make out exactly what was on the device as Cardin made sure to waggle it in Ruby's face.

But, he could make out enough: humanoid figure, some form of large, pink clothing, reddish hair—oh. Oh, that explained plenty. Adam realized exactly who that was. Ruby. Worse, in something that he'd almost laughed at the moment he'd seen it: her giant, pink, Beowolf hoodie pajamas. The only thing that could probably beat Vomit Boy's onesie: Ruby's own. Supposedly, it was her favorite. At the time, he'd thought it comical. Dare he say it, adorable.

To a populace who already saw her as a child, however... even the military bases of the White Fang were petty, at times. He knew what a reputation hit like that could do, and how unreasonably long it could stick.

It certainly answered what Ruby was so afraid of.

His eyes aching, Adam stood, rubbed his temples and let his aura drop. Well, he had a handle of the situation. Now, what was he to do with it... making sure Cardin suffered for this was obvious, but Ruby's ability to be cowed so easily would need to change.

He just needed an opportunity.

* * *

"Aw, come ooon, Rubes, this is exactly what I meant when I wanted you to find another team! It'll be fun, I swear!" As Adam called Blake for... he couldn't even count how many times, now, just to check up and see if she made it to Menagerie safely, Adam found his attention locking onto the conversation on the beds above him. Namely, yet another attempt by Yang to get Ruby to socialize once in a while. The name of the game this time: hang out with her and her friends later that afternoon.

"No, no, I've... I've got leadership homework to do! Yep, super important stuff!" Ruby deflected and shoved her face into a textbook.

"You're just saying that because I wouldn't know if you're lying or not!"

"Uh... I plead the fifth!" Ruby cried and hid under her covers.

"Rubes, they're _my_ friends! You can trust them, too, you know. Don't make me come up there!" Yang hopped off of her bed with a mischievous grin.

"I'll be charging you for any hospital bills," Weiss calmly warned her from below the safety hazard that was Ruby's bed, flipping through her notes and actually trying to study for the test. By some miracle, she'd managed to become adapted to the chaotic life in RWAY's dorm. Adam scoffed as he snapped his Scroll shut. Nothing.

"More like funeral services," he corrected her with a smirk, ignoring his growing agitation about Blake.

Weiss just rolled her eyes and returned to her studies.

"It'll be great, sis, you need more friends, anyway!"

"I already have friends! Like—"

"Outside of RWAY?" Yang cut her off.

The blankets shifted as Ruby stuttered and tried to think something up. "JNPR?"

"You mean Jaune."

"Yeah... yeah, I mean Jaune." Ruby sighed in defeat.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Adam will just do your homework for you: I saw him helping you out, these past few days." The Schnee decided to simultaneously pour a little more gasoline on the fire and drag Adam into it.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Assisting someone with their classes is not doing it _for_ them. Really, I have some expertise in that area and decided it would be better put to use helping Ruby than being forgotten. Besides, she's been getting a lot of it, lately. I've never heard of needing to write the same essay, only in conflicting viewpoints..." His eyes trailed up to Ruby.

"Yeah, what's been up with that, anyway?" Yang added with a narrowed gaze. "Is that class really that crazy? I think I saw you taking more notes than every other class we've got combined!"

Ruby poked her head out, eyes darting between the two. "Oh, well, uh, gotta stay in tip-top shape to be a leader, yep! That's why I have so much to do and—" Her eyes locked onto his, desperate for a way out. "Say, Adam, where'd you learn that stuff, anyway?" she asked just a little too loudly.

"Oh, that's _classified._ One of his _many_ secrets he has to keep so he can have that 'aura of mystique.' " The heiress mockingly wiggled her fingers as she answered for him, a smug smirk on her face that only grew as Adam fumed.

"Don't be upset because unlike you, I can't be read like an open book," he shot back. Weiss flicked her notebook aside as she leaned forward and prepared her own retort. The dual arguments raged on like a mighty storm, right up until Ruby decided to throw a low blow at Yang:

"Actually, uh, Adam said he'd grab some ice cream with me later, so I'm kinda booked anyway!" Adam had just pointed at Weiss, fully set to tear down her argument with a single well-placed snipe when overhearing that abruptly brought his finger up to Ruby. He never agreed nor even heard of this idea and was about to slap that down without mercy, until he noticed her pleading puppy eyes and tiny, adorable grin aimed right at him.

None of this was fair.

"That... that would be right. I completely forgot."

Still, this was exactly what he needed...

* * *

And that was how a twenty-one year old, brooding ex-terrorist cell leader ended up eating ice cream across from a giddy, fifteen year old Huntress-in-training. Ruby didn't even know how Adam could look grumpy eating a sundae, and _really_ didn't know how anyone could look grumpy _and_ pleased at the same time, but Adam was managing it. She'd settled with a strawberry milkshake, which Adam had grumbled something about 'not even being ice cream'. Halfway through Ruby's third milkshake and his only bowl of ice cream, Adam sighed and embedded his spoon into it.

"I'll admit it. That was a good plan." He held back a smile as Ruby smugly kicked back and slung an arm around the back of her chair, beaming with confidence. "That being said..." She blinked and leaned up again. "Yang's right."

Ruby groaned and slumped back into her chair. "Awww, she's gotten to you, too?!"

"And I know about Cardin."

She groaned louder and flopped forward, leaving her with her face planted on the table and her hood over her head. Her milkshake stood forgotten beside her. "I don't even know how he got the photo..."

Adam sighed. "You can't afford to be meek, Ruby. You are a _leader_ , now: someone who gives orders. Someone to be looked up to by your teammates and feared by your enemies... It's a little difficult to be feared if you can be ruled over by a single photo. That is the mark of a coward."

Ruby just grumbled something under her breath.

Adam hummed to himself. "I suppose you do look a little tired, right now. I can save this talk for later. Since you are clearly too tired for that milkshake, however..." By the time Ruby reached out to snatch it, Adam had brought it over to his side, just out of reach. Ruby was left glaring and pouting at him like a child. He supposed it was fitting for her age.

"Fine, fine, I'll—" She was at his side in a rush of rose petals, but Adam was expecting this, already holding it in his other hand and pushing her away with Wilt's sheath.

"Wrong answer. If you wish to drink this milkshake again, you will have to listen."

"And what stops me from just getting another one?"

"With what lien?"

Ruby patted herself down, then slumped her shoulders in defeat. She'd forgotten her wallet.

"Alright, fine, I give up... no need to take hostages..." She grumbled to herself before plopping back down in her chair and crossing her arms. Adam slowly set the shake down beside her, and just... stared at Ruby for a few moments. Just as she started to fidget in place and glance nervously at her drink, he cut right to the point.

"You're training to be a Huntress. You're too shy."

She crossed her arms. "Well, yeah, Captain Obvious." His hand drifted towards the milkshake and Ruby locked up. "Sorry!"

"You cannot allow yourself to be pushed around. _You_ need to be the one ordering Cardin to cease. Or forcing him to."

"Well, yeah, but what if I screw it up and just make more people bully—"

" **Enough.** You can't afford to be shy or worry about 'screwing it up'. You will need allies as a Huntress. Not many would want to partner with someone who cannot even talk to those she hasn't met before," he stated. This was something he knew Ruby would need to get over, and soon. One of the most selfish things he'd done was keep Blake to himself and himself only: it left the antisocial girl all but incapable of taking on leadership roles of her own. Blake was his partner. She would never be anything _but_ his partner... until she tried to leave.

"That's why I've got you guys and JNPR!" Ruby protested.

"Will you, really?"

Ruby nodded before he had even finished his question, determination in her eyes.

"Always?" Adam leaned forward.

His 'leader' deflated. "No..."

"And will you leave a village to die because you can't play the hero when they're all watching you? Judging you if you fail?" It was often that it wasn't that people wanted to allow oppression to continue, it was that they were too afraid of what happened if they failed in trying to stop it. 

Ruby groaned and slumped down into her chair. "Of course not..."

"Then you're going to have to get over it. Soon. A coward for a team leader helps no one."

Ruby flinched, but she knew there was no malice or anger behind Adam's words. Just bluntness. It reminded her a lot of Yang, though she always toned it down whenever it came to her. She sighed and tugged her hood down over her eyes.

"You win."

Adam leaned forward and brought a hand to his ear. "I don't think I heard you."

"You win! I give up, I'll make Cardin stop and go hang out with Yang's friends, next time... but that doesn't mean I'll have to like it!" She crossed her arms and pouted once more: she was going to stick on that! Adam leaned back and smirked in victory.

"Fine. I still count that as another win to my flawless record."

"Didn't Yang beat you?"

"I was distracted, and that never happened," Adam replied in warning.

"I think the school records and that fist mark on your face for two days says otherwise." She tapped her chin. "I _also_ think the other students would, too."

"And I think you've forgotten who has the hostage." Though Ruby's eyes widened in shock and her arm reached across the table in naught but a second, it was already too late: Adam chugged the rest of the milkshake in an instant.

Utterly defeated, Ruby flopped down onto the table, fake tears gathering in her eyes. "He had so much to live for!"

For the first time in what felt like years, Adam had to hold back a genuine, lighthearted laugh.

Unfortunateely, Ruby ended up with the last laugh upon realizing he had to pay in the first place, ordering three more milkshakes when he was flipping through his Scroll for any signs of Blake in Menagerie: she was the daughter of its ruler, after all, surely there would be something in the news. He had sighed and looked up only to find that she'd now had a shake of each size sitting next to the now-emptied one. Rose petals had found their way around it. Adam raised an eyebrow.

"... What? They're paying their respects!"

* * *

"... So, what do I do about Cardin, then?" Ruby asked as they walked through Beacon's grounds, the shattered moon shining high overhead.

Adam sipped the milkshake he'd claimed as repayment. "Simple. You march up and _force_ him to concede to you. Don't wait for him to come to you again."

Ruby knitted her brow in thought. "Wait, wouldn't he just throw out the picture anyway? You know, 'you've forgotten who has the hostage,' and all that?"

"Clever thinking. That's why you be _aggressive._ Storm up there and make it clear that there is nothing to question about you, only to _fear._ Cardin, like all oppressors, are cowards at heart. He'll back down, I know it. In other words, show him who's boss."

They walked in silence for a brief time, and Adam kept a close eye on Ruby during it. The faint hardening of her gaze, a shifting of the jaw... good, good, his words were sticking.

Finally, Ruby grinned and pumped her hand in the air. "Alright! This is the last day he's gonna have anything over me! But... uh, what if he just does something else, instead?"

Adam popped his neck and smirked, the glint in his eyes decidedly darker than that of just determination. "If Cardin continues being a pest, I'll just have to deal with him. _Personally._ "

"You aren't going to hurt him or anything, are you?"

He scoffed. "It is only what he deserves."

"But he hasn't done anything _that_ bad!" Ruby protested.

"Do you really think he's going to stop with you or Velvet? He'll only grow worse with time until his actions are far worse than this. It's in his nature. Better to kill a Beowolf while it is still a harmless pup rather than let it grow into an alpha." The relation to a Huntress' work was what really seemed to strike home with Ruby... as he expected it to. Her eyes widened with realization and, though she tensed and glanced away as her conscience no doubt tried to dissuade her, she finally nodded.

"Yeah... yeah, I think I get it."

Adam grinned and placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I can assure you, Ruby. By this time tomorrow, everything is going to change for you."

* * *

As Ruby slammed her books down at Cardin's table during breakfast, Adam smirked and took a bite of his apple. Velvet may have had the slightest point about giving peace a chance with Weiss, but when it came to someone like Cardin, Adam wasn't going to simply sit by and let Ruby be pushed around. He'd be paying him a visit later, anyway...

"Geez, it took her long enough to stand up to him!" Yang muttered next to him, watching the show play out ahead of them. Nora, the only one of JNPR who had come for breakfast over a bit of early exercising(or sleeping, in Jaune's case), nodded sagely.

Adam turned. "You knew this entire time? Both of you?"

She chuckled. "Uh, duh? Come on, what kind of big sister would I be if I managed to miss something that obvious?"

"And you did nothing?" He was incredulous. She had practically just attacked him over just rebuffing Ruby's attempts at friendship!

"Well, I mean, she's gotta start doing stuff by herself some time, right?" Yang offered with a weak shrug, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than him.

"What she means to say," piped up Weiss, "is that Yatsuhashi and I had to kindly remind her of how thin the ice we were on before she did anything rash. I was hoping that Ruby would have been beyond this, too..."

Yang gritted her teeth and turned to snap back at Weiss, but Adam's attention was drawn back to Ruby. Cardin stood tall above her now, sneering while the rest of his team were half-risen from their seats, crouched like animals waiting to strike.

"Like a little runt like you has any room to talk!" Cardin growled and shoved Ruby back. Yang's grip tightened on the table. Adam supposed keeping to her own word was something she had trouble with.

To her and Adam's surprise, however, Ruby managed to straighten herself out and stomped closer. "The 'little runt' who has a better combat record than you do!" She jabbed a finger at his chest. "... Oh! Better grades, too."

"That doesn't mean crap when you're Ozpin's little pet project!" His team snickered around her. "So you better watch who you're talking to. I don't care if you're his little lovechild or your pops donated, I'm gonna make you suffer. Starting with that little _thing_ we talked about, earlier." He snatched Ruby by her cloak and lifted her up.

"Hands off the cape!" She kicked her legs about, one kick catching Cardin in the stomach and leaving his grip to drop. As one, his team finally stood. Adam and Nora jumped up as well, only for Yang to grab onto his arm.

"Wait! Wait..." she grumbled through gritted teeth. Yang forced herself to continue, "Let her stand up for herself. Look." She glared down at CRDL. Rather than ganging up on Ruby as she and Cardin growled at one another, the rest of his team circled the two, their eyes locked not on the two leaders, but on them. "They're waiting for us to jump in. If they go at Ruby, we go in. But until then..."

Adam scoffed, snatched his arm away and sat back down. Nora, on the other hand, glanced between CRDL and Yang. She shifted her jaw before scowling—an expression Adam hadn't ever seen on the normally-cheery girl before—and sitting down as well, pouting.

"Your team, your rules," Nora grumbled under her breath, so quiet that Adam was the only one who heard it.

This brought along with it a keen observation: the cafeteria was eerily quiet, now, even for the smaller crowd that came with breakfast. Only hushed mumbles went through those gathered. Everyone was watching.

Ruby had noticed, as well... and even from where Adam sat, he could see her confidence shatter in an instant.

"Come on, brat! You're talking a big game, what are you gonna do!" Cardin gave Ruby another harsh shove, but this time it left her stumbling. Her eyes weren't focused on Cardin anymore, instead flickering around the cafeteria. Her response was mumbled quietly enough for it to barely carry over the excited mutters of the crowd, not even loud enough to be understandable.

Yang cursed under her breath.

Adam narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong. "What's happening?"

"Ruby... doesn't do well in crowds." Cardin's shouting had grown louder, and Adam found himself glancing between Yang and the growing situation. It was already getting out of hand. Ruby started to back away, any and all backbone she'd shown just moments prior missing. Like it'd never been there at all.

" _How?_ " the Schnee asked. "She's more of a show-off than him!" She motioned towards Adam, but Cardin stalking towards Ruby again brought his attention back to them.

"Tell you what, kid. Why don't you wrap yourself up in that little kiddy cape of yours and scurry off? You're in over your head." Cardin reached for her cape again, only for Ruby to slap his hand away.

"Just... j-just back off, alright?" She turned to leave. Perhaps Ruby didn't want to look like a coward, and did not activate her Semblance as she made to bolt back to her team.

That was a mistake.

Cardin slammed his foot down onto Ruby's cloak.

The sound of tearing fabric was all too clear in the nearly-silent cafeteria. Ruby crashed to the ground out of sight. Adam barely had time to look over before Yang was sprinting over to her sister's side, thoughts of leaving her to stand on her own abandoned. There was another shouting match between Cardin and Yang, now. Her eyes were blazing red as she led Ruby away. The younger sister was cradling her cape, a ragged tear scoring across its center, leaving it nearly in half.

Yang had shepherded Ruby out of the door before Adam or Weiss could even question them.

The sudden change when the room grew quiet was one thing, but that whirlwind of movement and noise only left one thing on Adam's mind.

"What the _hell_ just happened?"

* * *

The Schnee barged into their dorm room like a storm, Adam following close behind. "If someone would please be so kind as to explain—" The rest of what she wanted to say was muffled as Yang zipped over from Weiss' bed to the door and slapped a hand over her mouth.

As Yang all but bulldozed the two of them back out of the room, Adam put his superior height to use and just peered over their heads. Ruby sat despondent, clutching her cape on the Schnee's bed, curled up and staring down at that tear running clean through it. He narrowed his eyes. Certainly not for the first time in these past few days, he knew something wasn't right, here.

The door slammed shut, snapping Adam's attention back to the two girls in front of him.

Schnee was fuming and wiping at her lips. "Ugh, absolutely disgusting..." She shook her head. "Well, Yang? Plan on telling us what is happening?"

Yang sighed and leaned against the wall. "Look, her cape is... _really_ important to her. It's the last thing she got from... from our mom."

Adam's eyes widened: was _Ruby_ Raven's child, as well? Did she leave later than he thought? The way Yang was putting it, though, sounded far more like she was dead... and he severely doubted that was the case. Right? 

"Why can't she just get it fixed?" The Schnee asked and almost instantly regretted it from Yang's glare down back at her. She stumbled on her next words before trying to make a save: "Look, I'm not saying it'll fix everything, but she's acting like it's the end of the world! It'll be like nothing happened at all."

Yang shook her head and rubbed her temples. "Yeah, well, it's not that easy. It's a _special_ cloak, Princess. It's made with aura infused into the thing, sorta like Adam's glowy clothes. It's why it gets all weird when she uses her Semblance like that. Same kinda thing. It's really expensive: you can't just... stitch it back up normally."

Adam's eyes widened, but mentioning lien practically had the Schnee's eyes sparkling. With a bounce in her heel and a proud puff of her chest, she crossed her arms. "Well, then, I'd be glad to pay for it, whatever the cost!" With her head held high, it was clear that what she was expecting was praise and maybe even tearful thanks.

... When that didn't come, she was left glancing around with unease. She cleared her throat. "I _said—_ "

"The reason it's expensive is because of its rarity," Adam interrupted. "Beyond sentimental value, much of what it is capable of in a pragmatic sense is better done with Dust. It's not something that took off well in the Dust-rich areas of Vale and Atlas. Mistral, Vacuo, that's where people knowledgeable enough to fix it are... but there isn't enough time to find one. Not with a tear like that probably leaking what little aura is left in it. These things are like circuits and hearts: they need to circulate the aura constantly, or it'll fade."

He gazed past Yang at the door. "You said it was the last thing from your mother. Are you saying..."

Yang nodded and gritted her teeth. "Yeah. It's last piece of her we have left... literally." Her eyes flared red. "And Cardin _destroyed it._ " She kicked off of the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. She didn't exactly care. Any shred of resistance towards putting Cardin in the ground was long gone.

"Yang," Adam started as she began to storm off.

Yang turned. Fiery-red glared into emerald-green.

Adam only nodded. He knew exactly what Yang was thinking. Without another word shared between them, Yang continued on. Adam followed behind her, hand clenched tight around his weapon. He was planning on paying Cardin a visit already, but this changed things. Adam didn't plan on _killing_ him, no, no, but were his blade to simply... slip through Cardin's aura and filet him like a fish, well, he wouldn't be missed.

Suddenly, the source of Ruby's devastation was so clear to see. As was the extent of Cardin's crime, known or not. He snarled, eyes fading from emerald to crimson with each step, Yang leading the way and leaving Weiss confused and alone.

"Where... what are you two planning to do?" Weiss called behind them, warning in her tone and worry in her gaze. More for herself than anything, Adam assumed.

When the two looked back, their eyes were both a matching pair of livid, hateful red.

"What does it look like?" Yang said.

"We're going to give Cardin what he deserves," Adam sneered.

Then, Weiss was alone. Her leader needed support in the room beside her. Her teammates needed her support to stop them from getting their entire team _expelled_ in the halls ahead. Sure, she was upset, too, but that didn't mean she was going to help them brutalize another student! Worse, it wasn't as if they'd ever listen.

She scoffed. "Unbelievable," she muttered under her breath and brought up her Scroll to the door's lock. It beeped, she grasped the handle... and paused.

Back in Atlas, Winter was the one who handled comfort when she was younger, not her. Her younger brother, Whitley, was always too prideful and petty to be helped by Winter, let alone herself, even after an attack on the Schnee manor itself. Heavens knew her parents were too busy snarling at one another or their work to try to help their children in time of need. All of this left Weiss with a sudden, keen realization of how she didn't have the slightest clue on what to do. She didn't even know where to start with Ruby.

The door locked once more.

There was nothing she could do. Frustration and the festering knowledge that this could very well be her last day at Beacon left her growling and stomping off in the other direction.

Maybe she could just pretend like this never happened.

At least, that's what Weiss thought until she rounded the corner and nearly ran into Coco and Fox.


	10. Soft

** Soft  
**

* * *

"How long until our first class?" Adam asked as if he were strolling through the quiet halls of Beacon, not slamming the armored, perpetually-squinting teammate of Cardin headfirst into a stone pillar on the outskirts of the campus. His aura shattered with a satisfying _crack._

Cardin wasn't stupid, at least. Getting a text from the not-so-unknown overprotective sister of Ruby asking to meet up and 'work things out between our teams' had just resulted in him bringing along a couple teammates as backup. One now laid crumpled and unconscious at the base of a cracked pillar.

"Pretty sure we've long missed that one." Yang chuckled and threw aside the second teammate behind her. A scrawny boy with a mohawk. Frankly, he never stood a chance.

Cardin was left to stand his ground on the lonesome road back to Beacon proper. Pillars old enough to have already begun cracking and crumbling from disuse rose along both sides. They were far enough for no one to be able to hear any signs of battle. Or Cardin.

His aura was already crackling and faltering.

His two opponents were still going strong.

Adam looked away from Cardin's fallen backup. "If it helps, she wasn't lying, Cardin." In a blur, he'd leaped forward and lodged his boot squarely in Cardin's gut. He stumbled back, but kept his ground.

Unfortunately for him, this was exactly what let Yang rush in, one hook striking his wrist hard enough to send his mace flying, the second crashing into his jaw with enough force to put the shreds of his aura left out of its misery. Cardin crumpled, yet he didn't hit the ground. Having gotten behind him faster than he could see, Adam now held Cardin up.

"We _are_ going to work out these issues our team's been having recently," Adam continued. Unlike his teammates, at least, Cardin could stay conscious after the shock of having his aura broken.

Yang patted Cardin down as he reeled until she found what she was looking for: his Scroll. She snorted. "No lock? Really?"

"Screw you—" An golden, aura-fueled punch into his stomach cut off Cardin's words with a roar of pain. His legs buckled, but Adam kept him standing.

"So, first off," Yang began as if that didn't just happen, "you aren't touching my little sister, alright? You don't talk to her. You don't look at her. You don't breathe her air," she recited. Adam had the faintest feeling this wasn't the first time she'd had to do this.

She made a couple faces of disdain or disgust as she skimmed through his photos, right until she found the one of Ruby she was looking for. Yang sighed and deleted it. "And if I ever even see you or one of your teammates near _our windows_ again, you're going to wish you'd never been born, alright?" She crushed the Scroll in her hand and tossed it over her shoulder.

"You're screwing with the wrong person, Xiao Long!" A sharp knee in the side from Adam made him reconsider. "Alright, alright, fine! I'll leave the brat alone! Just... let me go!"

Yang clicked her tongue. "Yeaaaaah, that's the _problem._ It's too late for that: you just happened to screw up something kinda important to her."

That took a couple seconds for Cardin to consider. "... Is... is this about that security blanket of a cloak she's been dragging around? Are you serious?" Infuriated by the seemingly arbitrary, asinine reason, Cardin had the nerve to struggle. Someone with a broken aura, however, stood no chance at actually budging someone who had a Huntsman-level understanding of it.

The punch to his other side didn't help.

"I didn't say to talk, punk! Ruby's cloak just happened to be a gift from someone really important to both of us... and _you_ ruined it. So, next time you look in the mirror, I want you to remember why you don't screw with my sis!" Yang pulled her fist back. Cardin flinched. Adam didn't budge.

It wasn't glamorous. It wasn't clean. It wasn't particularly honorable, either. Adam held Cardin up with his arms coiled up under his armpits, and Yang beat him like he was an overly dense punching bag. It was something he'd seen in dirty alleyways and gangs, between criminals and hoodlums. Brutal. Savage. Hateful.

But Cardin would never forget what happened this day, and that made it perfectly alright to Adam. Even if he had to ignore the pleading of his conscience carrying Blake's voice.

It was what he deserved.

A groan and shifting of armor was what broke up that unceremonious beating: the stronger of Cardin's teammates that he'd brought was rising. Yang rubbed her knuckles as she stepped back, eyes red, but anger satiated. Adam dropped Cardin like a sack of bricks, and he struck the ground about as hard as one.

"If anyone asks," Adam said as he rolled his shoulders, "you were attacked by a particularly fierce Ursa."

Yang waggled her hand in the universal 'meh' sign.

"Two Ursai," he corrected himself as Cardin groaned and slowly started to push himself up to his knees.

The blonde brawler glared down at him for a couple seconds, then snorted and smiled. It held little happiness. "Good talk, Cardin. I think we really worked out those issues! Here's to hoping we don't ever have to have this little chat again!" She raised her boot, content to leave him just as dazed or unconscious as his teammates.

**"Enough."**

Yang froze, her foot lingering just above Cardin's head. Adam twisted to face the source of the voice, hand already reaching for the hilt of his blade.

Yatsuhashi stood at the treeline, arms crossed and a stern gaze leveled at the two assailants. At his side stood Velvet, turned away and typing away at her Scroll, eyes refusing to meet their own.

"You two have done _enough,_ " the giant repeated.

Yang slowly backed up from Cardin, allowing him to get up and try to stumble away with his wounded team. Both Yang and Adam held too much pride to let the concern show on their faces. The former, however, only crossed her arms without saying a word, as if daring Yatsuhashi to do anything about what was already done.

"I suppose he's learned his lesson," Adam said.

Velvet snapped her Scroll shut hard enough for them all to hear a faint crack. " 'Learned his lesson'?" She whirled around to finally stare them down, eyes wide and just as incredulous as they were angry. "Is that seriously all you have to say for yourselves about this? You assaulted another student—no! You beat him! Like he was a wild animal and not a person! Have you both lost your minds?!" Velvet shouted.

"Look, lady, he crossed a line!" Yang snarled, eyes having not faded from red since she began her assault.

"A line he didn't even _know_ about!"

"He knew enough," Adam interrupted. "Even so, it was the risk he took when he decided to harass Ruby. We're supposed to start sticking together, after all." A slim, vicious smirk spread across his face. "We're just protecting our team leader."

"What you're _doing_ is using it as an excuse to harm and hurt other people."

Yang just raised an eyebrow, her scowl now just a condescending smile. That seemed to be the last straw for Velvet, who threw her arms up in frustration. "Ugh, just... forget it! I don't understand why you're both looking so smug about this, because you're both going to wind up out of Beacon. If you ask me, people like you should best be in prison, not _here._ "

While Adam remained unfazed, Yang's glare down at Velvet held nothing but contempt. Velvet managed to match it back at them, any anger she lacked instead replaced by plenty of frustration and offense.

But it was Yatsuhashi who broke the silence with a heavy sigh and the first words he'd spoken since Velvet started yelling: "They're not in trouble."

Another period of silence, but of an entirely different feeling. Yang was staring at Yatsuhashi in absolute surprise, shocked to the point of her eyes regaining their normal, amethyst coloring. Even Adam raised his brow, sensing a catch, but still caught off-guard. Were he not still going over those words in his head, however, Adam was rather certain that he would have been laughing at Velvet. If they were shocked, she looked like her entire world had been flipped upside-down: mouth agape, rage shattered entirely, and ears flopped down to the sides of her face, she looked positively cartoonish.

Velvet managed to find her voice.

_"WHAT?!"_

* * *

"Yeah, no, you're not in trouble," Coco repeated to Weiss. "We even got you out of your classes for today. You're welcome, by the way."

Weiss sighed in relief and leaned against the wall next to Coco, resisting the urge to just slide down it altogether. With Fox checking up on Ruby, it had just left the two heiresses outside RWAY's dorm. "Did... did you catch them before they got to Cardin?"

"Hm?" Coco glanced up from her Velvet's brief, rather angry description of what had happened. "Oh, no, they _ruined_ him. Two of his teammates, too." She looked back down at her Scroll as Weiss twisted to look at her.

Seeing no reaction other than the slight frown that Coco kept ever since she explained what was going on, Weiss crossed her arms and huffed. "This is very serious, you know: it's nothing to joke about!"

"I'm not joking, princess. They beat Cardin to a pulp, and we're not telling Ozpin a word."

"You can't... but they..." Weiss stumbled over her words before she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and cooled off. "Alright. Why?"

"Partially because he kinda had it coming. Partially because he'd been pulling that kind of stuff with Velvet and she really isn't as good at hiding it as she thinks she is. Mostly, though, it's because it's a step in the right direction. Obviously, it goes without saying to _never do this again_ , but you're at least all coming together over something." Her gaze once more found Weiss, and as Coco looked her over, she got the strangest feeling that she wasn't too happy about something. "Most of you, anyway."

Weiss crinkled her nose in agitation. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Coco sighed, closed her Scroll and kicked off of the wall she was leaning on. "What I'm saying, Weiss, is that I'm pretty disappointed in you."

It took a couple seconds for those words to truly click with Weiss, leaving her staring at Coco with a growing mix of confusion until, all at once, her frustration burst forward. "... No. No! That's not even fair! I did _nothing,_ here!"

"Yep. That's kinda the problem. You didn't even try."

Weiss balled her hands into fists, her cheeks red with growing rage. This was outrageous: those two brutes were going to get all but a slap on the wrist, but _she_ was going to get the lecture? She didn't care whether or not Coco Adel was a fashion heiress or that she was two years her elder, she was going to give that woman a piece of her mind! She opened her mouth to speak—or, more likely, shout.

Coco put a finger to Weiss' lips. "Hey, hey, hey, before you sound off, let me explain, alright?"

She stared at Coco in a mix of indigence and offense, but settled down, all the same.

"Leader, partner, teammate, whatever: your job first and foremost is always to stick with them, no matter what. You had three choices there: keep your leader some company, stop the dynamic duo over there from screwing everything up... or helping them."

The younger heiress' nose crinkled again. "And just why would I ever _help_ them? If anything, I should've informed the proper authorities immediately!"

"They're your _team,_ kid. Unless they're doing something really crazy, you've gotta stick with them, not rat them out." Coco peered over her sunglasses at Weiss, then the door to their dorm. "At least help them."

Weiss looked away, her cheeks growing pink with embarrassment. Coco had her there. Whatever clumsy reassurance she could've given to Ruby would've probably been better than nothing. She was starting to get a feel for Ruby, anyway: her just showing up probably would've lifted her spirits. Heavens knew why she was latching onto her that much.

"When it comes down to it, if someone on your team goes out and does something reckless—even if they're obviously asking for what's coming to them—you either stop them or help bail them out. Chances are, whatever it is they're doing? Gonna be a lot easier and a lot less deadly with the rest of the team on their side. It's ride or die, Weiss."

Weiss blinked owlishly. "... 'Ride or die'?" she sounded out.

Coco sighed. "Nevermind. Look, point is: doing nothing's about the worst thing you can do. When you're fighting as a team, even if someone screws up, are you going to really sit there and let the enemy take them down? Even if it's a really _dumb_ screw up?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, there you go. It's not too different from that: you just chew them out _after_ the fact. It probably doesn't feel like it now, but come a year or two down the line, that team of yours is going to feel like family. There's nothing worse than having that, and then feeling like you did nothing when you lose someone. Trust me." Coco's Scroll vibrated, and with a sigh she opened and flicked to it.

"Oh, good, another update from Velvet." She scrolled down... and scrolled... and scrolled. "... Oooh boy."

Weiss slipped over to her side to peer at what looked like a veritable wall of text.

"Looks like Velvet got the news about us not throwing you to the hounds."

* * *

Velvet didn't stand through even half of Yatsuhashi's explanation before she stormed off, leaving Yang, Adam and her partner in the dust. Normally, something like that wouldn't have bothered Adam. Yet, the look she gave the two, not even a glare as much as just a glance full of disgust... it was more of a barb than he wanted to admit.

Adam sighed and glanced to Yang. "I'll make sure she isn't just going to grab the nearest authority." It was, frankly, a pathetic excuse: there was no way that she wasn't told about what possibly was going to happen, Coco clearly ran a tight ship and if Velvet didn't tell anyone beforehand, she likely wasn't going to snitch now. But he wasn't going to stay long enough to have that picked apart. Adam jogged off in pursuit of Velvet.

For all of her anger and speed, she hadn't gotten particularly far from them. Velvet was barely in Beacon proper, instead curled up just under a bridge near the third year dorms, typing away at her Scroll. With a river rushing below and the bridge blocking most sight, Adam wouldn't have even noticed her were it not for her ear just barely drooping out from behind her secluded hiding spot.

Velvet made no attempt to move as he got closer. It wasn't as though he hid his footsteps on the grass approaching her, and Velvet's ear even twitched as he approached, but she didn't move. Didn't even look up.

"Velvet," Adam said. Perhaps she was just too absorbed in whatever she was typing.

She looked up at him, then back to her Scroll without a word. The disdain in her eyes had remained, joined only by frustration. The barb managed to press deeper.

"This is not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be."

No response. The barb sank deeper.

"This wasn't about stopping him from attacking others. It was for Ruby's sake."

No response. The barbs multiplied.

Adam sneered. "It was what Cardin deserved, in the first place. Did you expect me to take no action while she got hurt?"

Velvet was on her feet and in his face in an instant. "It's not about what anyone deserves! We're not animals, Adam: we can't just solve our problems with violence. You didn't stand up for her at all: you abandoned Ruby just to serve your own needs!"

"Foolishness! I gave her the strength to get Cardin off of her!"

"Wrong." She jabbed his chest. "You sent her off at him like an attack dog and, guess what? The situation _escalated._ When coincidentally no one ever mentions a word of him getting attacked and no teachers or guards so much as glance in your direction, do you think that's somehow going to make him think that he shouldn't just find another target, instead?" When Adam said nothing, Velvet stomped past him up the riverbank and back towards the bridge. "It's not like you'd listen, anyway. We've been over this. You've gotten what you wanted," she said with a voice bearing only a weary acceptance of it.

And that was the last straw. Adam clenched his fist. "Well what would you do, then? Lay there and take it?!" he shouted. "How do you manage to act so above it all? How can you just take their hate without so much as glaring in their direction when you've got all the power in the world to do more!"

Velvet glanced back. "See? I already told you why I don't strike back."

"No." Adam stalked back towards her. "Not _why._ _How._ "

She blinked, brow raised in thought and surprise both. Briefly torn between just leaving and staying to talk, her eyes darted from him to the bridge before she sighed and crossed her arms. "It's because... well, I've seen what happens when you go down that path. It's just not worth it. I was..." One of her ears drooped down. "I was born in Menagerie. Not the mainland, though: one of the colonies all the way on Anima. Its name was Hopeloa. At first, everything was great: we were too far from Mistral's border to encounter too many humans, there were mountains to the north and shallow seas to the south... it was a lot like a little Vale, actually.

"And then we struck gold. Gold and Dust, anyway. Too much for one town to take over. So, humans came flooding in all the way down to where we were, setting up shop left and right, and Mistrali human were never too happy about the faunus ever leaving Menagerie in the first place, let alone colonists. They wanted a big, unfair cut of all the resources and land. We refused—I mean, who wouldn't? At the time, we had the White Fang to protect us... and they did!"

Velvet turned to face him, and for just a moment, Adam could see the spark in her eyes. The fire of the oppressed wanting their rightful place in the world, struggling yet shining bright. "They healed our sick, built houses, kept out the raiders and bandits and Grimm, everything! But then..." That fire flickered and died out. "Then they started getting angrier. Crueler. They stopped defending us, and went out to 'directly' fix the problem by raiding the other villages back."

She squeezed her arms tighter to her chest. "They kept it small enough where no one outside really knew, but it was a war. Mistral brought bigger and bigger armies to respond, and the White Fang just kept stretching out further and further in their attacks. A human settlement raided became one destroyed, became a fort ransacked, became raids on Mistral's borders. They got so focused on Mistral for attacking us that they forgot about those raiders and bandits and Grimm. They might've been winning, even, but it didn't matter: one day, while they were so busy attacking the 'threats to our town', a wave of bandits came by... then Grimm... and that was it. The town was gone. Just like that.

"My parents and I were some of the few survivors, and we had to go back to the continent. I don't even know if the White Fang cared enough to notice. Do you get it, Adam? What's the point of even going off and attacking all those threats if you just abandon what you're defending in the first place?"

Adam ignored the sick feeling in his gut and looked away.

"It would've been better if they'd just stayed there to protect us. The town next to ours... well, they took that first deal. They're around. Hopeloa isn't. Maybe being like them is better than being Hopeloa. At least you survive."

An awkward silence settled between them. Adam's question was answered in spades, and it wasn't leaving him with much he could truly say in response. Slowly but surely, though, one thing pushed its way to the forefront of his mind.

"Menagerie has no allies... but you have your team. They don't look like the type that'd sit by and watch this kind of thing happen for three years. Why haven't they tried to help you?"

Velvet shifted her jaw, and now it was her turn to find her surroundings so interesting. "Well..."

* * *

"If this were two years ago, I would have crushed Cardin like an aluminum can," Yatsuhashi stated as simply as if saying the sun would rise the next day. Yang had expected some kind of stern lecture or to stew in uncomfortable, guilty silence like he was her dad or something on the way back to Beacon. Instead, he'd been quiet, leaving it just at a 'never do this again'. It was Yang who had cracked and asked how they could just let Velvet get bullied.

Yang blinked. "Wait, really? You? The peaceful giant?"

A rumbling chuckle came from the massive warrior. "I wasn't always that way. I'm the record holder for most freshman fights. On and off the arena."

Her jaw dropped. "You're lying."

"Not at all. It was only after my partner happened to help me out that I realized that, instead of rushing in headstrong, I should sit back. Meditate. Think. I heard about what had happened in the cafeteria: you did well, there. The aftermath, though, needed work."

"If you knew what happened there, then you would've known how important—"

Yatsuhashi held a hand up. "I was the one who suggested we cover for you. I understand. But take this from my experience: it's best to approach with a cooler head."

Yang took a moment to think about it, then sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Alright, alright, one more try. Call me curious, though: how'd Velvet get you to calm down like that? Or was it Fox?"

Yatsuhashi stopped.

* * *

With Fox slipping out of Ruby's room and rocking his hand in the universal 'so-so' sign, Coco took that as her time to leave.

"Well, guess that means it's up to you now, kid." With a big smile, she threw an arm around Weiss' shoulder and thumbed off towards the door. "You're her teammate, you'll be fine. Just head in there and... I don't know, does what comes naturally!"

Weiss forced out a chuckle and slipped from Coco's arm. "I... I will certainly try?"

"Pssh, trying's for losers. You just go in there and _do_ it. You'll be fine, I promise! But before I leave," Coco peered down at the shorter heiress over her glasses, her smile disappearing, "seriously, Weiss, it's better to keep close to your team. You never know just how long you're gonna have them around." Grinning, she crossed her arms just as Fox left back for their own dorms.

"Still you might all be a little rough around the edges, but by the end of whatever Oz has planned, you guys will be the next CFYN, trust me!" A sharp inhale from Fox was the only sign something was off.

Weiss had just knitted her brow and begun to speak, when Coco waved it off with a chuckle sounding just a hint too controlled. "CFVY, my bad. Slip of the tongue, old habit."

"Team... 'Caffeine'?"

"It's nothing, really. Just remember what I said, alright, Ice Queen?" With a whistle for Fox to follow, she strode down the hall, around a corner and out of sight. Controlled, quick step and a smile just a little too wide: if Weiss hadn't been to her fair share of banquets and dances, she almost might've thought she was genuine. Still, a Team 'Caffeine'...

Weiss pursed her lips as it hit her, and she looked back to where Coco had rushed away from. Suddenly, her advice became all the more poignant.

* * *

"I'm kind of new here, actually," Velvet admitted. "I'm replacing one of Team CFVN's members, Nel Ciel, after she... passed away on a training mission." With a helpless shrug and shift of her ears, she looked off towards Beacon.

"I don't even bother telling them: I don't want to just make myself a burden right after I got here, let alone drag them into my problems." As Adam mulled that over, her Scroll buzzed, and she flicked it open to check what alerted her.

"Oh! I need to get to the next class! I'll see you in the afternoon, Adam!" She took off up the hill and across the bridge, her anger seemingly having gone with the wind.

She leaned over the railing. "I'm still mad at you, by the way!"

Or not.

Though Adam managed a smirk and roll of his eyes, his walk back to Beacon proper was a silent one. His hands in his pockets, eyes watching the ground, weapon stowed under his arm and his mind turning over what Velvet had said.

He had plenty to think about.

* * *

Weiss took a deep breath. "Ruby, I can understand the kind of pain that you are going through, and as your loyal teammate, I simply wish to inform you that if you require anyone to talk to, I shall hold no qualms with conversing with you. After all, we are friends, correct?" Yes, there we are! Perfect!

She scanned over her written proclamation one more time, safe and assured that her fourth revision really helped make it more personal. And she thought having no experience would stop her, ha! All she needed to do now was... actually tell Ruby. Which meant she'd have to unlock the door and walk in. Where Ruby would be there, probably sad or crying or distraught.

Weiss gulped. She went over it! Her revision was perfect, after all! It'd definitely help put her in a better mood to know she was there. She raised her Scroll to the door, unlocked it, and reached for the handle.

"What are you doing?" Adam asked from only a foot behind her.

With a yelp of shock, Weiss tried to jump forward and away from him, only to open the door and tumble right through it face-first to the floor. Cheeks red with rage and embarrassment, Weiss pushed herself up onto her knees and glared over her shoulder at Adam. Seeing the self-satisfied, smug smirk on his face nearly had her jumping up to give him a stern lecture about personal space and sneaking up on people, but a quiet snickering from the corner of the room reminded her just why she'd come here in the first place.

"Uh, are you okay, down there?" Ruby managed through giggles, sitting with her knees to her chest atop her bed. Even from here, Weiss could see the faint redness still in her eyes. Her cloak laid folded in her lap.

Her mouth opened and closed for a bit as she tried to form a response. That must've looked even sillier to Ruby, for stifled giggles turned to laughter. Even Adam masked a chuckle behind a cough.

"You know, I'm beginning to grow a little concerned with half of the laughs of this team coming at my expense," Weiss said with a huff and roll of her eyes as she stood up. She'd just brushed herself off when Yang barged in clean past both her and Adam, disregarding their noises of complaint.

"Hey, I've got a brilliant idea! _Technically_ , CFVY got us out of our classes today because of a supposed sickness that has Ruby down and we're taking care of her... but instead of just moping around here, why don't we hit up the arcade, instead!" Yang called up to Ruby and, for a moment, her eyes lit up. Just as swiftly though, it faded, and she glanced away.

"Oh, it's fine, guys, really! I wouldn't want to drag the mood down, or anything..." Ruby tried to wave it off with a forced smile.

"You'd do nothing of the sort!" Weiss protested. "In fact, I think I would not mind coming along with you both," she added with a confident smile and crossed arms.

Ruby gasped and leaned forward, any former qualms gone in a flash. "You would?! You turned us down like, the last three times!"

"What can I say, I've had a change of heart." Her attempts to remain cool and collected were squandered when a sudden breeze whipped through the room and Weiss suddenly found herself with Ruby latched onto her.

"Ooooh, I'm gonna show you all the cool games, I promise!"

Weiss let out an awkward chuckle and tried to wriggle away, but her brave attempts were, ultimately, futile. She bit back the urge to tell Ruby to stop: she might've just gotten... really cuddly when recovering. "I... hope so?"

_Click_

That didn't stop her from glaring over Ruby's shoulder at Yang snapping a picture of her.

"What about you, Adam? Are you coming with, too? Or are you too _cool_ for games?" Yang taunted with a playful smirk.

Adam shook his head and took a seat on his bed. "I've got a lot to think about. I'll call if I change my mind, though." A faint, tired smile assured them he was telling the truth.

"You're no fun, you know that?" Yang jabbed, but there was no true malice behind it. "Come on, Rubes! Before Ice Queen here changes her mind."

Giggling at Weiss' huff, Ruby turned back to look at her bed. "Let me..." Her smile wavered. "Let me hang the cloak up, first." She was quick about it: a little hop to grab the cape, then she was over to their closet in a rush of rose petals. She muttered something beneath her breath, carefully slipped her cloak onto a hook, and trio were gone before Adam could say much else. Off to have their fun.

With Ruby gone, he could let his false smile drop. The two girls hadn't heard Ruby, but he had.

_"Sorry, Mom... see you later."_

The last gift from her mother. The last scrap of her, all but destroyed by Cardin. If he focused enough, he could see where the very edges of the tear glowed a faint white, only visible due to the shade of the closet.

Adam clenched his fist. Even those remnants of fury left the red along his outfit glowing a dim red, coursing with his aura. He let that anger fade. He wouldn't lie back and simply allow this, but aggression, perhaps, wasn't the answer.

Reaching back with his foot, he hooked the travel bag he'd originally brought with him and dragged it out. He rifled through it until he found his secret stash of Lien procured from questionable means. It wasn't much... but it was enough for what he'd need. He had lien, a needle and anywhere between two and eight hours, depending on how seriously they were taking this 'arcade' day.

He knew what he had to do.

* * *

In the end, as he closed the door to the closet, he decided he'd join the girls after all. It had barely taken any time at all.

* * *

Adam awoke the next morning to a scream. He allowed himself an uncharacteristic smile as he heard the room erupting into chaos and confused shouts, then promptly wiped it from his face and sat up with a scowl.

"And just what are you all shouting about?" he growled. "It's the crack of dawn!"

Ruby was bouncing in place in the middle of the room, zipping to and fro so quickly that it was hard to make out much of anything at all amidst the rose petals. "Well-I-wanted-to-check-on-my-cape-before-it-was-really-broken-and-empty-or-something-but-then-I-opened-the-closet-and-it-was-just-lying-on-the-floor-so-I-picked-it-up-and-look!" Before Adam could even figure out half of what her rapid-fire speech was meant to be, Ruby had shoved her cloak in his face.

Her perfectly whole cloak. The massive tear had been turned to merely a red 'scar' stitched across it. One so hard to see that you really wouldn't spot it on first glance. Not unless you were already looking, anyway.

Adam blinked and wiped at an eye, leaning in for a closer look, but Ruby was already gone again, having scrambled up the bunk bed to show Yang. Soon, even she was excitedly chattering with her.

Weiss, however, the last to rise, pulled out her earplugs and seemed rather... skeptical. She watched the two sisters with a curious smile, but the faintest knit of her brow and narrow of her eyes gave away her true thoughts.

"How exactly did that happen?" She affixed her stare on Adam.

He, however, only shrugged. "I was with you three almost the entire time. Besides, auraweaving takes far more time than what I would have had here, even if I did just have some spare sewing equipment just lying around." Sometimes, the best thing about knowing the most of a subject was that you could lie through your teeth about it, and it'd simply be accepted.

Even so, Weiss didn't look convinced. "So it stitched itself back together?"

Adam waved it off. "Aura from particularly strong users _has_ been reported to be able to repair the clothing even without the user's assistance." Of course, that was for scratches and minor holes, not massive tears like that one.

The Schnee tossed her long hair aside and was ready to continue her little interrogation when Yang hopped down from her bunk, a wild grin on her face.

"Who cares! It's called 'not looking a gift horse in the mouth', Weiss: I'm not questioning anything here... and also, I'm way too awake to go back to sleep, now. Come on, Rubes, let's see if it's too early for breakfast!" The two zipped past them to quickly throw something on over their pajamas, leaving only Weiss and Adam alone.

Adam expected the Schnee to revive the little argument but, instead, she smiled. "I can still see the spool of thread under your bed."

He could mask his slight gasp, but not the widening of his eyes. It was only a split-second later that he recalled he'd thrown the spool into his bag after he was done. A split-second too late. She'd noticed. She'd tricked him.

Weiss' smile grew wider and all the more knowing. "Just as I thought."

_"You're just a big softie, inside."_


	11. Strength

** Strength **

* * *

Two days had passed since their little incident with Cardin, and it was as if it had never happened. Classes went on, Weiss didn't mention the truth about Ruby's cape, Cardin wouldn't so much as look at Team RWAY, and Velvet had even started talking openly with him again. All in all, life was good... all except for one thing.

Not a single message from Blake.

Were he not at lunch, Adam would have thrown his blasted Scroll. Maybe there was something wrong with it: he hadn't attempted to connect to anyone beyond Beacon's borders and personal network, so perhaps that was the issue? No, he'd overheard Yang and Ruby talking about texts and calls from their father, before. It couldn't be that. It'd been months! _Months_ without a word.

Could she have simply... died? Lost at sea or at land from Grimm? Adam thrust those thoughts from his mind and, daring not to spend a single second longer on them or the thought of being left alone, snapped his Scroll shut.

At least his internal struggle was not noticed: the three girls were busy chatting with Nora and Pyrrha. From what he could gather, their 'leader', Jaune, had started vanishing throughout the day. From the similarities to Ruby's own problem, there were more than a few suspicions that it was that rat, Cardin. Wounded and furious, it seemed he hadn't ceased his bullying. Instead, he simply found an even weaker target with more passive friends.

And so the cycle went on. Velvet may have been right, after all.

Adam sighed and went back to his meal.

His mind was so focused on Velvet and Blake both that he didn't notice Nora pointing into the air until it was too late. Adam's eyes flicked up only soon enough to see Jaune sail that last foot through the air and crash into their table hard enough to flip it over, sending food and drink scattering across both Jaune and the two unfortunate enough to be on the other side of the table.

Those two were Adam and Yang.

Adam was satisfied, at least, when Cardin strolled up to the carnage only to briefly stumble when he felt the cold fury coming from the other side of the table. Was Velvet potentially correct about perpetuating a cycle of hatred? Perhaps. Was that going to stop him from flaying Cardin alive? Oh, most certainly not.

He had just begun to stand when, to his surprise, it was Ruby who slid between Cardin and Jaune. Though the cafeteria was full of noise from excited mutters to conversation to the rest of Jaune's team checking him over, not a word was shared between Ruby and Cardin. Ruby did not advance, only standing tall in her silent defense of Jaune. Cardin's eyes bounced from her to the two who had beat him across the table, then fell back down to Jaune. He took a step back, but when his eyes caught sight of the crowd, he stopped.

Now, it was his reputation on the line. Like a cornered animal, he bared his teeth and clenched his fist.

Ruby stood her ground. "Leave him alone," she said. Like pulling the pin from a grenade, Cardin's desperate rage spiked. His aura rose, as did his hand.

"It's been rather lively in here, as of late, wouldn't you think?" That was a voice that froze almost every student in their tracks. Professor Goodwitch marched through the cafeteria and right towards their group, an absolutely murderous intent behind her gaze. Ruby was left waving her hands and speaking rapid-fire to try and get herself as far from the situation as possible, but Cardin did his best to stare Goodwitch down... without actually trying to be obvious doing so, of course.

Goodwitch's eyes scanned over the two of them. A snap of her riding crop silenced Ruby with a squeak. "I see that you've become quite fond of the power Huntresses and Huntsmen hold. So too, however, do they have responsibilities, such as knowing _when_ and _**where**_ to use it." With barely a twitch of her crop, the table and remains of their lunches pulled themselves upright and whole.

Weiss calmly pushed her plate away from her.

"This isn't the first time I have seen trouble surrounding you, Mister Winchester." Goodwitch glared down the taller boy, leaving him forcing a nervous excuse for a cocky smile. "But... since this is Miss Rose's first offense, I will make this a learning experience."

Ruby blinked and raised a hand, ready to mention how she hadn't even done anything... but a mere glance from the steely-eyed professor left her quiet again.

"If you two are so secure in your abilities..." Goodwitch smiled a cold, terrible smile.

* * *

Oh no, no, no, no, this isn't what she wanted at all! Ruby squirmed and looked around the stands of the arena she now stood in. It was Saturday! No one had classes, which meant that when Professor Goodwitch announced a _special sparring match between her and Cardin_ , it wasn't just half the cafeteria showing up to watch the bloodbath, it was about three periods' worth of students! The place was more packed than it had ever been, and Ruby was right in the middle of it, trembling like a small dog.

Standing tall in his full armor, Cardin was saying something to her, but Ruby couldn't even hear it over the chatter coming from every direction. This was one of the biggest crowds she'd ever seen! She couldn't perform like this! That was a titanium-bladed heavy mace with a focused red Dust core amplifying each impact, even a non-mechashifting weapon like that could knock her out in one blow!

"Oi!" Cardin shouted at her. How come she had to fight when Jaune was getting thrown around? Was he even in the audience? Oh no, Cardin was glaring at her really intensely, she might lose and then she'd never be able to show her face in the Academy! It'd be even worse than if the pictures got out! _Oh no,_ what if he released _that_ too?!

"Hey!" Oooh, she just wanted to go to her room, she wanted to watch cute videos about puppies and kittens and that one silly husky that sounded like it was talking—

"I can hear you!" Cardin shouted over the roar of the audience. Ruby locked up: was she saying all of that? Her eyes darted nervously about the crowd for any tells, but they were far away and it was dark and she couldn't see anything and what if they were laughing at her and—

"I didn't think it'd be that bad," Weiss muttered in a shocked daze at just how far gone Ruby was.

Adam laid back in his seat, rubbing his temples. "This is going to be a disaster."

Yang had other thoughts: "Come on, Ruby! Put him in the dirt! Knock him out in one hit, you can do it! Ruby! Ruby! Ruby!" With Yang's natural charisma, it was no challenge at all to have half of the arena cheering her name, even if the other half started up a call for Cardin. The calls had reached their peak when the lights around the stands cut out and the buzzer rang.

Showtime.

Cardin leaped forward with explosive force, but he was magnitudes slower than Ruby: in a rush of rose petals, she was gone. Rather than attack, though, she hid at the edge of the arena, trying to block out the crowd by peering down her scope and firing at her foe. She might not have been able to see their faces, but she could see the blue lights of Scrolls and blinking reds of recording. This is why she didn't even like mock battles! She'd just pick someone mediocre and hide until it was her turn!

"Really? You're just gonna run away!" Each shot was slammed away by Cardin's heavy mace as he strode towards her. A walk turned to a jog to a sprint as he rushed Ruby yet again.

"N-no! It's being tactical!" Ruby tried to shout as she ducked beneath a swing and forced herself to stand her ground. Cardin's slow blows were heavy enough to throw up plumes of dust and fire with every strike, but not a single one could catch Ruby with little more than the shockwave. Even so, none of his blows were countered. For all the flair and twirls of Ruby's scythe, not once was its deadly blade aimed at him.

* * *

As Ruby abruptly shifted her stance and shoved Cardin back with a wide, almost clumsy—but certainly still dangerous—swing of her scythe, Weiss knitted her brow. "What is she _doing_ down there?" she asked, her voice barely audible to Aadam under Yang's cheering.

Adam frowned. Ruby parried a swing with a spin of her scythe, sending Cardin stumbling back. He could see her eyes searching him over. Her gaze paused at his legs for a fraction of a second. Cardin's stance was poor and unstable... yet Ruby did not capitalize, instead firing her rifle to keep him off balance. A sweep of his legs could've ended the match before it began. He knew it. Ruby knew it.

He narrowed his eyes.

"She's hesitating."

* * *

Ruby jumped back from a ball of flame, only to squeak when she bumped into the cold metal wall of the arena. There was nowhere else to go, now. Nowhere to run. Cardin looked amused as he stalked forward: dodging would just get her walloped by the shockwaves and he knew it. Unfortunately, so did she. Ruby gulped.

"You know, I don't even know why you were so mad in the first place. I just saw how bad Jaune screwed up in initiation!" Cardin made yet another unsuccessful strike, but it was one that forced Ruby to swipe it away with Crescent Rose. "I wanted to help him with his landing strategies!"

A flip of a switch and her scythe's blade flipped up, pointing out at Cardin as a true polearm. With the range and speed advantage, Cardin couldn't get close. Every slash and stab got her a couple inches more away from the wall. But it wasn't enough: Cardin wasn't just an average freshman, she couldn't chip him down like she could half of the people in her class. He had just as much strength and just as much aura... which meant she'd have to take risks eventually.

More chances to screw it up, right in front her team and _everyone else_ too! Her eyes flicked over towards the dark stands, right where she knew her team was watching her.

"Why don't ya give him an example!" Her attention was snatched back to the fight just in time for her to roll out of the way of a wave of flame.

Right into the path of Cardin's next swing upwards.

The world churned and blurred as Ruby flew up to within feet of the ceiling. She caught glimpses of herself, aura flaring from the strain of a direct hit to the face. Her ears rang, yet she could still hear the shouts and roar of the crowd. This sucked. This really sucked. Her team was probably just embarrassed about her, right now.

"Come on, Ruby, is that cape for show!" Weiss' voice called out as she dropped back down. Here comes the insults. "You're our leader! You're better than this!"

Huh? The surprise shocked Ruby out of her funk just long enough for her to see Cardin readying to bat her clear into the stands. A shot from Crescent Rose sent her flying off to the side, and another had her sliding behind Cardin faster than he could react. Unbalanced from hitting nothing but air, he was easy pickings for a slash that knocked him on his rear.

Did she just hear that right? Her eyes searched out in the crowd for where her team was, completely ignoring Cardin getting back up. Ruby swore she even heard _Weiss_ cheering for her, now.

"Ignore the crowd, Ruby!" Adam shouted. "You want to be a Huntress, right? Then crush him! Team RWAY runs from no one!"

Ruby's grip around Crescent Rose tightened. You know what, she thought, they were right! What was she so worried about? Who cared about what the crowd thought, she had her team at her back!

Cardin rushed her, pushing his aura to his limits to try to match Ruby at the least in the speed of his swings. He was finally taking her seriously, but unfortunately for him, it was far too late to do so. In twirls of red and bursts of gunfire, Ruby deflected each and every swing of his mace with her scythe, weaving through his clumsy blows to land ones of her own across him. When he raised his weapon high for a frustrated, final blow and left himself open, there was no hesitation.

Ruby turned away from Cardin, brought Crescent Rose behind her and slammed the haft of Crescent Rose into his side. It wasn't enough to budge him, but Cardin froze anyway. The blade was behind him, scraping up right where his armor ended. Ruby glanced over her shoulder to see the realization dawning on Cardin's face, and the anger it brought rushing with it.

She didn't give him the chance to do anything about it, though.

With a grin, she pulled the trigger and backflipped over Cardin as he was thrown forward. The buzzer sounded as he struck the ground.

Normally, she hated judging gazes and praises alike... but, as the crowd erupted in cheers and she happily waved to her team, Ruby actually thought it felt pretty darn good.

* * *

This place was changing him, Adam thought. Yet, he didn't know if that was truly a bad thing, even as he found himself cheering like a fresh recruit when that buzzer sounded.

* * *

Roman Torchwick whistled as his loyal, ice cream-colored associate laid out the bills for the month. Heating and electricity had gone clean through the roof from the richest folk—like himself—to the poor. Dust prices were rising across the board to the highest they'd ever been in years, shops were closing their doors for good, the government even stepped in to begin rationing, not that the Huntsmen and Huntresses would ever notice with their priorities. Even Beacon would be sheltered from the news. Just like he planned.

Laughing his way up to the window of his apartment that sat atop the highest skyscraper he could find, Torchwick lit himself a fine cigar. The bills wouldn't bother him a bit, but, he wondered: what would the little ants down there think of one class of citizens getting Dust to waste freely outside the Kingdom while they starve inside it? Well, considering that river of flame and dark figures rioting through the street beneath him, not too highly was the answer.

"Neo, I think this is my finest work, if I do say so myself." His partner stood atop a chair to get a better view of the rioting below them. She turned to him with an amused look.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I know, 'remember, you are only a man'." The Schnee Dust Company had ordered an emergency shipment of Dust to be sent to Vale: an entire freighter's worth, normally impossible due to just how big a target it would be, and he was going to steal it. All of it. He'd be stronger than any king, councilman, Huntsman or _Headmaster_ out there. Most importantly, he'd still be a man.

Not a monster, like those thugs without moral or class. Not an animal, like the White Fang that had only grown more violent since that 'Captain Almond' took charge. Not whatever his boss truly was.

A man. Greater than all.

"Ring up Cinder. Tell her everything's set up." Neo nodded to her boss with an evil grin and vanished in a rush of light.

Torchwick took a long drag from his cigar.

"Thirty days, Vale. Make 'em count."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Short, I'll admit, but it's more of a wrap-up than anything else.


	12. The Calm Before The Storm

** The Calm Before The Storm **

* * *

"And that ends the match." Goodwitch stated the obvious. One team laid collapsed with auras flickering and waning. Team RWAY stood with not a single member below seventy-five percent, looking for all the world like they'd just gone for a stroll.

"Team RWAY, your skills on the battlefield have improved dramatically, even in these past two weeks. Keep this up, and you four will have no problems qualifying for the Vytal Tournament." Goodwitch pushed her glasses up and shot a glare towards their leader. "If you keep your overconfidence in check."

Ruby let out a nervous giggle and glanced away. Maybe making silly faces behind her opponent while they frantically searched for her was a step too far, but she thought it was funny!

As the professor nodded for them to leave and moved to the other team to provide what advice she could against such an overwhelming threat, RWAY stepped out into the halls.

The door hadn't even fully closed before Ruby leaped into the air. "Now, that's more like it! Keeping that flawless record going!" she cheered as the door behind them closed.

"You know half of our victories were with us still ignoring each other, right?" Weiss pointed out.

"Well, duh! I, uh..." Ruby looked around and tried to hide how obvious it was that she was thinking up what to say next, but to little avail. "Meant ooour record of flawless victories! Y'know, with all three of us still being up?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"She's not entirely incorrect. Even if I could probably crush half of our opponents on my own." Adam crossed his arms and leaned up against the wall to the men's changing room.

Yang stifled a laugh. "Ooooh, look at Mr. Cool And Edgy over here. Last time I checked, I beat you last time we fought."

"You also have conveniently found ways to miss any fight we've had after that," Adam said. "And three to one isn't a particularly good record."

"Oh, really?" Yang rolled her shoulders and walked closer to him with a wide grin on her face. "My aura's still fresh, how about we even that up?"

"Okay, okay! That's enough!" Ruby slid between them.

"Aw come on, Rubes, we were just playing around!" Yang tussled her little sister's hair until she let out a growl that she probably thought was threatening enough.

"Yea~ah, but the headmaster is _just_ about to let us off of that probation or whatever it was when CFVY was watching us and I kinda don't wanna go back to that! We're gonna prove that we're the best team in Beacon, and we're probably not going to do that if we've got older students around just to make sure we can't stay out of trouble... even if they are pretty cool. Right, Weiss?"

No response.

Ruby pushed up onto her toes to peer past Yang's shoulder. "Uh, Weiss?"

"She left to change around the time you started your speech," Yang said.

Ruby crossed her arms and huffed. "Fine! You agree then, right Adam?" She turned around... to find no one there.

"He left about _halfway_ through your little speech," said Yang from behind her.

Ruby stamped her foot and spun on her heel to face Yang again, only to find her waving as she walked off into the changing room. "Ugh, you guys suck!" She said with a grin that betrayed her words as she jogged in after her.

Sure, her team was prickly... but it was nice to have RWAY all together!

* * *

That afternoon, someone left a book by a tree in the courtyard. Already, Adam could guess it wasn't a textbook: those things were practically worth their weight in Dust. However, curiosity took over, and he reached down to pick it up. No title, no information, just a simple black sleeve over it. He flipped the cover open and instinctively grimaced.

'Ninjas of Love 2: Romance of Ronins,' it read.

Naturally. It sounded like something Blake would read... Adam frowned, at that. How many weeks had it been since they last spoke to one another? Each night, he had called, wondering if the White Fang had caught up to her already or if she had simply forgotten about him. Adam snorted at that: no, even if their relationship had fallen apart, they were still too close for that.

Curiosity began to take over: exactly what _did_ Blake find so entrancing about these books, anyway? Adam flipped open to a random page close to the beginning, and began to skim. Three pages later, and he'd flipped back to the first page: really, there was no point in reading without context.

Ten pages later, he was leaning against the tree. Why, he couldn't gather a synopsis if the sun was in his eyes.

Thirty pages later, he caught himself slumping down against the rough bark. For... smut, it was rather well-written. He'd have to read further if he wanted to _really_ figure out what Blake's infatuation with these kinds of books were about.

Eighty pages later, Adam decided he ought to stay here and make sure no one stole the book, and while he stayed here, he might as well spend time reading through it. After all, what else what he was supposed to do?

Two hundred and forty-two pages later, not including a couple rereads of certain... more interesting passages, and Adam wiped at his eyes: the sun had such an awful glare. Looking around, Adam realized just how much he had lost track of time: it was late in the evening, now, deep into sunset. The sky was a mix of red and pink, much like Adam's cheeks after he realized not just what he had been reading, but how long he had been reading it for. Adam idly tipped the book closed with his thumb holding his place.

He sat up ramrod-straight: someone could've seen him. Would they have known what book he was reading? What if the original owner had seen him? His eyes nervously flicked from window to window, pathway to pathway. The last few people were leaving to their dorms. That didn't matter: if anyone had noticed him, they would have said something... or the damage was already done.

Grunting, Adam pushed himself back up the tree from the soft grass. Either way, he supposed, there was nothing he could do. Might as well go back to his dorm: no doubt the others would start getting curious about where he'd went. Frankly, he was surprised at least Ruby hadn't gone searching for him. He idly flipped Ninjas of Love II open again: now, what to do with this... he _did_ only have about ten pages left, and the owner hadn't shown up yet, either...

_"Oooh, please tell me I just left it here..."_ A soft, accented voice shook Adam from his thoughts, and the sound of hurried footsteps coming towards his position. He turned around the tree—

And found himself face-to-face with a very flustered Velvet Scarlatina.

"O-oh, uh, hey Adam! I was wondering if you had seen a... book... anywhere..." Her eyes slowly fell from Adam's face to the open book dangling loosely in his hand. The two stood there for what felt like an eternity. Velvet's eyes were wide, her jaw slack and her cheeks bright-red. At least in terms of the latter, Adam wasn't doing much better, himself.

He snapped the book shut, and Adam was certain she jumped a foot into the air.

"... Let's never speak of this again," Adam muttered and handed the book off to Velvet. Her eyes flicked between Adam's own and the book before she just squeaked and snatched it from his hands. Believing that was the end of that, Adam slowly stepped back, slipped his hands into his pockets and quickly strode towards his dorms. Just a few more minutes and he could forget all about this. Unfortunately, right when he thought he was free, Velvet's voice called out from behind him.

"Wait!"

Adam sighed. It was never that easy. He turned his head slightly, not enough to see the rabbit faunus herself, but enough to tell her he was listening. Adam preferred if she saw him blushing and flustered for as little as possible: he cared for his image a little more than he cared to admit. Now holding the book behind her back, Velvet carefully stepped into his view. Her eyes, however, were finding the grass much more interesting than the one she called to.

"Coco's been saying that she's getting pretty confident in your team. Enough to let you guys go when the Headmaster asks, tomorrow. I just..." She kicked at the ground. "Well, that's no reason to stop hanging out, right?"

Fully turning to her, Adam let a rare, genuine smile show. Faunus friends were hard to come by. "I see no reason why it should..." He held up a finger. "Under one condition."

Velvet raised an eyebrow, amusement in her eyes. "Oh, this ought to be good..."

"It's time you stood up for yourself. Even if Cardin's... domesticated, it's only a matter of time before others pick up on it. If they haven't already."

Her smile fell. "Adam..."

But Adam's remained. He held up a hand in his defense. "I'm not saying to 'take him down a peg' or even make a scene... even if that is what he would deserve. Just don't let them harm you. That's all. You don't need to use your strength to make them know you have it."

Velvet shifted on her feet and crossed her arms beneath her chest. She thought it over for a little longer, then sighed. "Alright, fine. It better be worth it, though!"

Adam rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "Trust me, it will. Thank you, by the way... for more than that. I will admit that your ways and methods may have... worked better than I expected."

"Well, it was kind of what I was here for. See you later, Adam!" Though Adam couldn't see her, he could hear the smirk in her voice... and that just wouldn't do.

With a last glance back, he waved to her and walked off. Adam stopped only once on his way to his dorms, just barely within earshot as he called back, "Oh, and tell me how it ends!"

Her cheeks reddening, Velvet huffed and hurried off to her own room.

* * *

It wasn't long before Velvet had begun to join RWAY and JNPR at lunch. It also wasn't long before Yang and Ruby began teasing him over his unlikely friend, especially when, due to Velvet's forgetfulness, it was _Weiss_ who found her book the next time she had lost it. Adam soon contemplated if he should leave his room at night at all, now, lest he come back to hear the two sisters giggling amongst themselves before he had even opened the door.

Still, it was worth it. With the combined pressure of her team, Yang, Nora, Ren—a surprising show of solidarity—and himself, it wasn't long before she'd begun pushing back against those who tried to bully her. Protected by RWAY, CFVY and JNPR, those who believed she was much of a target at all faded away all too quickly.

There was even a pleasant side-effect to it all: it seemed that seeing one of their most passive standing up for herself had spurred other faunus to do the same. Some more successful than others, but if they were to stick together, the possibilities were endless...

Adam sighed as he sat down for dinner, peering out over the other students. The faunus of Beacon were growing more confident now and without(too much) need for violence. Surely, Blake would have loved to hear such a thing...

His gaze fell onto his Scroll. Call failed.

If only he could actually talk to her.

* * *

"Are you alright? You've been staring at your Scroll like that for a whole week, now." Ruby leaned over Adam's shoulder, peering into the low light of his Scroll for all his secrets. Alas, Adam snapped it shut before she could see anything.

Adam yawned and glanced around at the rest of the room: RWAY and JNPR were planning on having a big night together tomorrow, and gathered this night to try and come up with ideas. Unfortunately, Adam couldn't weasel his way out of this one, which was why he was stuck sitting in a circle with a bunch of girls and Jaune(and Ren) putting ideas to a vote.

And considering how some of their hands were raised, he must've missed one. Had Blake truly forgotten about him already? Replaced him, even? It'd been almost three months...

He forced the thoughts from his mind, even as it grew harder each time.

"... What's this vote about," he asked, purposefully ignoring the looks of concern from his team. Weiss sighed in disdain and waved her hand towards the rest of the group: Ruby and Yang had their hands up, and Nora was holding Ren's up as well. He looked about as disinterested as he was. As it was, it was a stalemate.

"It seems we must have run out of good ideas already, because _they_ are suggesting we have a poker night."

Adam arched an eyebrow. How long had it been since he'd played a card game at all? Around the time he started climbing the ranks, suddenly no one wanted to be the unlucky soul who nabbed his boss's money, and both Blake and Ilia were not exactly card fans. He had to admit however, that he might feel bad cleaning out a bunch of teenagers, even if it was just chips. His eyes fell onto Ruby, who smiled uneasily. She knew exactly what he was going to say.

"Aren't you a little too young for that?"

"Thank you!" Weiss threw her arms up. Ruby puffed her cheeks out, and Yang held her other hand out in her defense.

"Now, now, I'm her big sister: I can watch out for her."

"You're enabling her," Weiss stated flatly.

"No she isn't, she's just... not shielding me!" Ruby nodded with a satisfied grin at her own answer.

"Yeah! She can take it, come on!" Nora added in. Adam couldn't help but notice that Ren had started looking through his own Scroll, now.

Weiss crossed her arms and turned her head up to the rest of the group, determined to get her way. "Well, since we're tied again, Ruby will just have to figure it out on her own time."

Adam's eyes scanned across the room once more. Weiss was just so ridiculously haughty, tonight. On one hand, Ruby was young, and he didn't want to either make a fool of himself or make a fool of anyone else... _but,_ on the other, Weiss was making this way, _way_ too easy. Protecting an innocent fifteen year old from being brought into the world of gambling... or defy a Schnee.

"What's wrong, Weiss? Are afraid you'll lose that badly?" He propped his chin up on his fist and smirked. There really wasn't a choice.

"Adam..." Weiss began to warn him, even trying to throw an icy glare his way. As if that would dissuade him.

"I was just curious. So curious, in fact, that I think I might want to see for myself." Adam started bringing his hand higher from his chin, enjoying Weiss' anger rising along with it until he had it proudly in the air. Ruby and Yang cheered and high-fived one another while Weiss snorted and shook her head. Jaune and Pyrrha uneasily glanced between one another. Easy targets for later.

"I swear, I must be the only mature person in my team..." Weiss huffed yet again as Yang and Adam high-fived over her head. Adam caught a faint blush on the ice queen's cheeks. He wondered...

* * *

"Teach me." Weiss stood over Adam the next afternoon as he lounged on his bed with a textbook.

He was right.

He flipped along to the next page, not bothering to look up at the Schnee. "You don't even know how to play? Why not ask Yang? I'm certain Ruby did," Adam replied casually, as if he weren't trying his hardest to not look so smug he'd make Roman Torchwick look like an insecure child. Ruby and Yang were currently off doing a snack and cards run after they realized that they had none of either, leaving the two alone in their dorm. Weiss crinkled her nose in agitation and crossed her arms, intent on staying in control of the situation.

"Don't play dumb, Adam: you and I both know Yang wouldn't let it go."

He flicked another page over and got himself comfortable. "You're overreacting."

"Oh, yes, she's _perfectly_ mature and wouldn't dangle this over me for weeks." Weiss growled.

Another page flipped by. Adam wasn't even hiding that he wasn't actually reading, right now. He was too busy watching Weiss simmer out of the corner of his eye.

Weiss huffed and looked like she was going to finally just give up... until she suddenly smiled and crossed her arms. "Just like she hasn't been dangling Velvet over you, right?" When Adam lingered on the next page and remained silent, Weiss knew she had him beat. Now, it was Adam's turn to be disgruntled.

The ice queen leaned over him with a sly smile. "Like. I. Thought. So, are you going to help me, or not?" She triumphantly placed her hands on her hips, expecting Adam to finally acquiesce to her now that he'd seen the truth. To her surprise, however, she instead received nothing but silence.

Weiss awkwardly glanced from side to side, then cleared her throat. "I-I _said_ , are you going to help me, or _not—_ "

"I think you're greatly underestimating just how fun I think it is to see you squirm," Adam spoke, catching Weiss off-guard.

She sputtered and looked around again, before anger caught up with surprise, and after a kick at his bed, she stormed back off to her own.

"Ugh, fine! You are just impossible, I swear!" Weiss less sat down as much as she threw herself onto her bed, grumbling under her breath. While Weiss went off on her muffled tirade, however, Adam set his book aside and pulled his travel pack from under his bed. In truth, he never fully unpacked: he never saw a reason to, especially if this had ended up to just be temporary. Weiss never noticed the sounds of clothes and items rustling about, having decided to simply pretend Adam's side of the room just didn't exist at all.

She did, however, notice the small box that bounced off of her head. Pushing herself up and turning to Adam with indignant rage in her eyes and a building scream that'd wake up half the dormitories, Weiss opened her mouth wide, and paused. There was a box of cards sitting on the carpet, coincidentally the size of the one that had been so _rudely_ thrown at her. Her eyes flicked between the cards and Adam, sitting on the floor just in front of it with the most _insufferable_ grin she'd seen on him yet.

"Fortunately, it'll be all the better if you actually know what you're doing when you're beaten. Sit down, I don't know which variant we're playing, so I'll just show you both."

Weiss fully sat up and crossed her legs in defiance. "I'm sitting down, already."

"On the floor, Weiss. Unless, of course, you want Yang to go around telling people that we were in the same bed, together." Weiss snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Please, as if she'd twist the situation that much for a giggle." Adam stared at Weiss until, with a sigh, she wordlessly conceded that such a thing was exactly what would happen, and sat down on the same level with her... mentor.

"Well, are you going to help me, or not?" Weiss repeated, turning her nose up at the game already.

Adam shuffled the deck.

* * *

"... This game is stupid," Weiss stated flatly as she looked at the three cards out in front of them.

* * *

When Weiss was left looking around in a panic as Adam dealt the eight their hole cards in the blink of an eye, Adam was only reassured. The chips were set. The bets were placed. Tonight was looking to be a wonderful night.

* * *

"This game is great! Read 'em and weep, ladies!" Weiss flipped over her cards, winning yet another hand and completely cleaning out Ruby and Pyrrha both of their chips. As Ruby slumped into her chair in saddened disbelief, Adam worriedly began gathering the cards. He expected Jaune and Nora to be steamrolled out of this game in an instant, but Weiss was also supposed to be on that list.

Right now, the princess was going toe-to-toe with himself, Yang and Ren.

And the only reason Adam believed Ren was in it was because he had the single best poker face he had ever seen in his life. Not that he'd ever tell him this.

The deck was shuffled, and eight cards flashed out to their new owners. It hadn't even fazed Weiss.

Adam gulped.

He had made a terrible mistake.

* * *

"Soooo, it might be a _little_ against school rules, but how about we play for lien, next time?~" Weiss merrily skipped in front of her three comrades in arms, all following in various states of shock. She'd wiped them out.

"Do you really have to be any richer," Ruby murmured, still empty from her devastating loss.

"Ruby, my dear, it's not about the _money_! It's about winning!" She dropped onto her bed with a haughty giggle. "Proving that I am once again the best is just extra, of course."

Weiss never told him if she was a hustler or a genuine natural. Considering how she was just as good any other time they played after that night, Adam wasn't sure which possibility he feared most.

"Oh, and by the way, Adam, thanks for the tips~"

Either way, he got played.

Adam would never live this down.


	13. Cloudy Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWAY finally stands together, but not all tensions have simply blown away...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick warning: after V1 I'm going to vanish for a month for studies.

**Cloudy Days**

* * *

It wasn't as though RWAY's nigh-perfect record was any fluke as a team. No, that was a very coordinated effort from Adam himself. A little swapping off between Ruby's 'team attacks' and his own advice on targeting weaknesses had without a doubt left RWAY on top of every list. Yes, the closest he had gotten to another loss from one of them were the occasional close call in his duels with Weiss—she wasn't letting that go, either— but they were a force to be reckoned with.

It helped that one of Adam's only hobbies was the personal formulation of overall strategy, sparring with Weiss and training regiments. The latter wasn't exactly listened to by the team, but it was something to do. Something to keep his mind busy.

Something to keep his mind off of Blake.

In the end, the fact that it led to a string of flawless—by Ruby's definition, anyway—victories was just a bonus.

That didn't mean he was not left worried, the first time RWAY fought against JNPR.

* * *

Adam slid beneath a bronze shield launched fast enough to be naught but a blur and launched back up into a kick that his redheaded opponent narrowly leaned back from. It was a feeling he was growing accustomed to when fighting Pyrrha Nikos. He only had enough time for a single follow-up swing nudged aside by her own blade before the shield came flying back. Adam spun on his heel, one arm behind his back to fire at and suppress Pyrrha with Blush, his other prepped to deflect the shield further away.

To his surprise, however, the shield was not thrown aside by his aggressive block. It simply... rolled along Wilt, drawing sparks across the crimson blade and shifting like it had a mind of its own. Any time to hypothesize on how was short. Adam jerked himself out of the way of the flying object. As punishment for his hasty dodge, Pyrrha struck Blush away from his hand. A snappy twist and slash that sent his aura out like a wave kept Pyrrha away from him, but the fact of the matter was that his chances of getting back to his rifle were minuscule at best.

Adam rolled his blade in his hand. Surely, he was growing soft. Surely, that was the only way any freshman—even a prodigy—would be keeping up with him! He'd been trying to hold back the full extent of his speed to keep questions to a minimum... but the realization that he may not have been able to keep up even with that was creeping on him.

Pyrrha went on the offensive. He was at a disadvantage of one weapon, and she pressed it for all it was worth. Trying to avoid the rushes of her shield and swings of a sword now extended to a spear was like navigating a maze. Yet, something was wrong. His fighting style was not meant for two-handed fighting: he could fend her off well enough, but there were holes in his defenses. Holes he even instinctively flinched from, expecting a strike. But none came. Not from those glimpses through his defense, which she so clearly could see.

Was she holding back, as well?

She parried a forceful strike from above and launched Adam into the air with a flick of her spear. Just when Adam caught his bearings, a thrown shield smashed into him and sent him into a spiral. He was vulnerable. At least, so Pyrrha thought. Catching brief glimpses of her leaping through the air was enough for him: at his apex and as Pyrrha brought her spear back, Adam shined red. His pride wouldn't let him lose.

Adam brought his full speed to bear. Wilt moved faster than sight, a mere red wave that drowned the world out in its glow.

Yet, he felt resistance. In that fraction of a second of impact, he could see—he could _feel—_ Pyrrha's blade clash with his, having moved just as swiftly.

Adam and Pyrrha both were launched to opposite sides of the arena in puffs of dirt. Wilt spun down like a buzzsaw and embedded itself in the wall meters away. Pyrrha's blade stabbed down just as far away from her. Both rolled to their feet unarmed, panting and appraising one another. They both knew what they'd just seen, and what that meant.

"... Draw?" Pyrrha offered, smiling.

"... Draw."

The buzzer sounded.

Maybe he underestimated these humans. Celebrity or not, a mere student able to stand against a former White Fang leader... just what was Ozpin creating in this academy?

* * *

Adam sat alone in the RWAY's dorm as the afternoon went on, spinning his Scroll in his hand in the vain hopes that perhaps it would ring and free him from this miserable boredom. Three months here was beginning to make one thing very clear to Adam: he had very little to do here. Ruby and Weiss often now studied with one another, Yang had her clubs and he had... nothing. It was now more than ever that Adam realized how much fighting had taken over his life.

He'd read through the most of his textbooks, finished _Ninjas of Love_ after Velvet left it against a tree again, fought with the rest of his team—currently at three wins, two losses—taunted Weiss, had a chat with Velvet... what now?

Surely, Weiss wasn't right. He could connect beyond battle, surely... even if that was the case with her. And Yang. And Velvet.

... That wasn't the case with Ruby, though, which meant the Schnee was wrong, of course... but that did not mean she may not have been onto something. Combat and preparations for such was a significant part of his daily routine in the White Fang. Surely, there must be something better to do...

Adam yawned and checked the sky. The sun's position marked the time at... roughly five o' clock. He grimaced. There was plenty of day left, and plenty of nothing to do.

A pleading voice reached his ears, and Adam curiously looked out of the window.

Three freshmen were shoving a faunus girl with short cat ears between two dorm buildings, well away from most of the populous of Beacon. Were he not a faunus, he might not have even seen them altogether, and their voices would have been just part of the crowd. Adam's eyes narrowed: this was far more common than he would have expected. In fact, ever since Cardin's humiliation and the faunus gathering up, Adam thought, the mockery of faunus simply moved from the open to behind closed doors and there, hidden from the world, grew worse.

No doubt, this was simply those humans—those _bullies,_ Adam corrected himself—trying to place the blame on the faunus. Adam scowled and began to follow.

Adam scowled and began to turn towards the door, but froze when he noticed they'd grown quiet.

Too quiet.

He focused and glared down upon the four, fearing the worst. He was correct.

The three humans were slowly reaching back. The faunus girls' hands were at two sheathes at her waist. Of course. Her pride couldn't take much more. She would _have_ to fight back.

But unless they were complete slackers and she was on the level of his team, she wouldn't stand a chance. She'd be beaten, she'd lie about her involvement with the humans to avoid further assaults, and she'd become just another shadow too afraid to even raise her hand when asked about simple discrimination. Her aura would heal her wounds, but not her pride. She'd be cowed. Broken. Just like the rest of his kind.

The human to her left struck first, swinging out a blade that struck nothing but air as the woman ducked down and drew two shortswords to block the second human's overhead swing. It was a stalemate, but one that wouldn't last long. They wouldn't risk using their firearms: aura or not, that would attract too much attention.

Even so, Adam had to act. He snatched Wilt and Blush, threw on his hat and, rather than take the long way out, flipped himself out of the dorm's window and launched himself off the wall towards the fight.

The advantage of aura protecting one's self was a double-edged sword for the faunus who unlocked them: while they might not take permanent injury, some took it as all the reason in the world to attack them. After all, they could sleep easy at night knowing they weren't _really_ hurting them.

They weren't _really_ like those oppressors the White Fang spoke about. They were still good. The faunus were still evil.

By the time he approached, the faunus had taken a blow: all three had surrounded her, forcing her into a dance of blades and twirls that left her weapons clashing against the humans' own. She parried one and took her opening to rake her sword across his chest, launching him out of the fray but leaving her back open to a jab from the leader's staff.

Thrown to the ground by the sudden force, the faunus stared up with wide, fearful eyes at the three approaching students surrounding her once more. The leader spun his staff and raised it high.

It would be so easy to kill them, Adam thought.

Adam could already envision it: one leap from behind the leader within five feet, a second off of his staff into a spinning jump. Use the momentum to slash the leader's neck mid-flight, sheathe, land behind the survivors, second slash along their backs. Their auras would be so weak that even without piercing through it, he could still shatter them. Their deaths would be instantaneous. Painless, even.

His conscience warned him in Blake's voice, but it was pointless.

Adam wasn't going to waste his chances at Beacon for people like them.

The faunus prepared herself for the worst when, in a rush of black, someone front-flipped over her to-be assailant and in midair slammed a sheath into him hard enough to create a blinding flash. By the time her sight returned, her savior was standing atop an unconscious human's chest with a crimson blade pointing at the final one. The leader had already collapsed in a heap: she realized that the burst of light had been from his aura being completely drained in a single blow.

"Leave. I will not ask you a second time."

The final human slowly lowered his weapon and, trembling, dragged his leader off.

Adam spun Wilt and slowly sheathed his blade. Yes, all he had was fighting. But, it was fighting for what was right: fighting to protect the weakened faunus from those who oppressed them, even if he was not part of the White Fang any longer. However... that did give him an idea. One that would not just strengthen the faunus but give him something to do.

"Tell me," he began, turning to face the rising girl, the rounded cat ears on her head marking her as a cheetah faunus. "Do you want to become strong?" Adam remembered her, now: that girl he'd seen during the initiation. He wondered, briefly, if these three were part of her own team.

Her eyes hardened.

That was all the answer he needed.

"Gather any friends you can find," Adam said. "I have a plan."

It was time to put that free time to use.

* * *

"... You plan to open a club," Professor Goodwitch peered over her glasses at Adam from behind her desk, eyes bearing down upon him even though, if anything, he sat taller than her.

Adam nodded, his face impassive. "Correct."

Goodwitch's eyes traveled over him, searching for any sign of falsehood. Folded hands. Straight posture. Not a twitch or a even a blink before he spoke, though the slight narrowing of his eyes meant her scan was not unseen.

She pushed her glasses up. "The formation of a club is no small act, Mister Belladonna." How she disliked that name. She wasn't ignorant to the news: for this _terrorist_ to take the name of that which his faction had effectively forced out was disrespectful to the highest degree. And make no mistake, she was still finding it hard to believe that he had a sudden change of heart. "I would hope that you coming to my office on a Sunday means you have more than only the desire to make one. Just what would this club be for?"

"Self defense."

Were the situation not so grave, she would have smiled. Ah, so that was what he was trying: to recruit from within? She supposed it was better than the alternatives. But that didn't mean she was prepared to give the White Fang a foothold in her school, either. Let alone a training camp.

"I'm afraid that request will be denied. We already have the combat training courses as well as exhibition matches allowed during the weekend. There would be little point in this club's existence."

As she spoke, Adam drew out and unfolded a paper from his pocket. "Math club, science club, smithing club. I don't think overlap with curriculum would be trouble. There is a severe lack of personal defense options beyond training matches: understandably, Beacon Academy is focused towards the slaying of Grimm, not man. This leaves a potential hole that my club would fill." He smiled a slim, knowing smile.

Goodwitch was not amused. "That being said, those are general clubs for more general audiences. There are no assurances that your club will gather the numbers necessary to not simply be _wasting_ any time rented in our facilities." By the end, she was gritting her teeth: Adam was unfolding _another_ sheet of paper.

"Ten students ready to join on word-of-mouth alone within one day of being informed of the idea." His smile grew just a bit more as he slid the paper over.

She shifted her jaw and took a deep breath. "The costs of a combat club, Mister Belladonna, would be no small price. Dust prices have been growing higher each week after a string of robberies. You would need to cover the initial club costs..." A set of lien cards were spread out on her desk. Goodwitch held back a scowl at his casualness. " _And_ find a source of income to replace ammunition and make repairs."

"I'm glad you mentioned that." Adam withdrew a _packet_ of papers from his jacket.

Goodwitch let out a deep sigh and raised a hand. "That's enough, Mister Belladonna. Fine. I'm quite certain you already have the forms prepared," a second packet being dropped proved that, "so I will pass it to our Headmaster. I will warn you now, though: rarely are first years allowed to run clubs at all."

She really shouldn't have been surprised when the forms were returned to her, personally approved by Ozpin.

She _really_ shouldn't have.

She'd just have to hope that Taurus would act with some modicum of class, dignity and respect.

* * *

"The first rule of the Self Defense Club is: you do not talk about the Self Defense Club." Adam marched back and forth in the center of one of Beacon's numerous arenas. A group of students sat ready with the cheetah-eared girl at their head, their years varying, but one thing uniting them: they were faunus. The ones who silently withstood the attacks of the world, with Beacon being no exception. Perfect.

"The second rule of the Self Defense Club is: you do _not_ talk about the Self Defense Club!" He twisted on his heel and jabbed the tip of his sheath into the sandy grounds. "What we desire is to become stronger! But with that strength and unity will come fear, and with fear will come the attempts to shatter and destroy that which _makes_ you stronger. And this place is no exception: the information that you are arming yourself with knowledge is a dangerous one."

Adam couldn't help but notice his teammates peering from one of the doors. He didn't let that stop him, though. "Combat against man. Combat against a stronger foe, with aura and without. Combat while outnumbered. Sparring. This club will be about turning each and every one of us into a potent weapon. And getting just a little bit of that anger out, of course."

He chuckled. "But make no mistake. While we will not spill the secrets of our growth, we will be _unified._ We see one of us in a poor situation: we assist. We see even those _outside_ our club getting harassed, bullied, attacked: we assist. Help your fellow faunus to stand tall, for in time, we shall hold our heads high in the light. But for now, this will be our domain, and our domain alone."

He caught the eye of Weiss as his teammates slipped away. A furrowed brow, the faintest of frowns, and worry in her gaze. No matter. Let the Schnee be annoyed.

"This will be where we train in the shadows."

She'd never understand, in the first place.

* * *

Weiss was annoyed at first, yes, but Adam couldn't help but notice just _how_ disgruntled Weiss was becoming with him in the days following his morning training sessions with his 'Self Defense Club'. Ruby, on the other hand, was supportive and Yang even came in every so often. He had a feeling of why just Weiss would be so agitated: many faunus were beginning to sign up for it. As far as the faunus of Beacon knew, he was one of the few humans who were not just sympathetic towards faunus, but actually willing to _do_ something about it. They were learning slowly, but it would not be long before he knew they could defend themselves well.

After all, who better to teach them than someone who was already well-versed in preparing an army?

Adam saluted to his 'students' and watched over them as they departed the arena. Yes, the day was soon coming where they could operate freely without needing to worry about interference: they'd grown considerably after only a month. However, the shifting of sand approaching him caught his attention.

"We need to talk." Weiss' voice came from just behind him, low and cold enough to be fitting for the nickname she'd started to garner: Ice Queen.

Adam sighed. He supposed it was inevitable. The trouble with getting more people was that there were more avenues for information to escape: faunus gathering up to get better at fighting people would draw ire.

"What about?" He didn't bother turning to face her. That justify the inevitable talk with any more attention than it deserved. The last person besides them had left. They were alone, now: she could speak her thoughts freely. So could he.

"Don't play stupid, Adam!" Weiss hissed. "About little private army you've been building." When he only began to walk away, Weiss snarled and pulled him around by his shoulder.

The first few words of what Weiss said were lost to Adam as he took a deep breath and tried to forget that little transgression.

"... And if you think the rest of the school haven't been noticing your little training camp over here, you're sorely mistaken. People have been whining to Ruby and I about how we've got some faunus-sympathizing _radical_ in our group! What's next, hm? Are you going to start handing out masks?" Even in private, Weiss spoke in hushed, harsh tones. It annoyed him, but not as much as it did when the Schnee advanced towards him, having the _nerve_ to step close until they were only inches apart.

Adam caught that look in her eyes, again: hints that this anger was not simply based on a single incident. He didn't care. A step forward forced her back.

"What's wrong, _**Schnee** **?**_ " He let the bile and hate her family truly invoked in him show as it was his turn to advance. Unlike him, Weiss backed up. "Upset that there's an 'SDC' around that actually _helps_ faunus rather than keeps them around as weakened slaves and servants like they are back at home?"

"That's not the point, it's just—"

"Your point is worthless!" Adam shouted, face twisting in anger as he continued his advance.. "It's clear that a Schnee like you would never understand." He scoffed. " 'Handing out masks'? You're no better than the rest of your wretched family."

Weiss tensed and her eyes widened. She balled her fists and halted. She began to speak, only to turn her head away with gritted teeth.

"Oh? Have I struck a nerve?" He leaned down until their eyes met.

She muttered something under her breath.

Adam turned his head and brought a gloved hand to his ear. "I'm sorry, you're going to need to speak up—"

A blur of pale skin flashed by, and Adam's head snapped to the other side. He recoiled and stepped back, his cheek stinging red with pain. Briefly, he was dazed: she slapped him. Weiss Schnee _slapped_ him. Like he was just a disobedient animal.

And suddenly, his mind was clearer than it had ever been.

* * *

"YOU DON'T KNOW MY FAMILY! You don't get to treat them like they're the evil scum when your kind does worse!" Weiss' conscience struck her with the force of a truck the second she felt the last word leave her lips and the sting in her hand start to fade. Her breath caught in her throat: she'd lost control. She'd slapped her own partner, and for what? Telling the truth? Because that was certainly something her _father_ would do.

Weiss forced down her guilt and pride. If she ignored Adam being a faunus for this long, she could keep doing so. She'd get nothing from being paranoid, after all. He hadn't even done anything wrong yet.

She took a deep breath and focused. "I... I apologize, Adam, I didn't think you'd..." Weiss trailed off. Adam simply... stood there, still staring off where he was before, having not moved an inch.

"Adam?"

His eyes slowly rolled in their sockets to stare at her, head turning after. Ice-blue eyes met crimson, and Weiss froze. Adam's nostrils flared with each slow, restrained breath. His hair and eyes both were emitting a dim, red light. Her mind jumped back to her father and those horrid days when he returned home after hearing the news of yet another facility destroyed or family member murdered, so full of rage and searching for a target to take it out on. This was worse. Far worse. This wasn't the desire to lash out and hurt.

It was to kill.

Weiss had once seen that dark mark of anger burned into him, but she now realized this was only the edge of the hatred that actually lurked in her partner. Hatred all focused onto her. There was simply no way this was borne from a single slap: it had to have been hidden, lurking under the surface for the entire time they knew one another. What were once just petty insults and scowls suddenly took on new meaning, and formerly good memories were stained by doubt.

Weiss trembled, suddenly aware of their privacy. She was alone with him. With someone who hated her to her very core. Her breath quickened.

This was a mistake.

* * *

_Remember who you are!_ Adam's wrath roared at him as he stepped closer to the Schnee. The _whelp_ who had the nerve to lay her hand upon him, a commander of the White Fang, for her own hateful beliefs!

And yet, his conscience, always with Blake's own voice, was quick to reply. _"She doesn't_ know _who you are, Adam."_

_Kill her!_ He took another step closer. Weiss stumbled back. She was saying something, but Adam couldn't hear a word. Not now.

_"There'd be no going back from it: you'd lose everyone!"_

_She's just like them!_ Aura channeled into the blade still held in its sheath, honing its intent to kill until it was ready to finally lash out.

_"She's just angry!"_

_She is a human who only sees the monster in faunuskind!_ Weiss jolted: her back was up against a wall, now. She was terrified. Good.

His anger festered, drowning out his conscience entirely. _You can't turn back, now. She'll find the others and turn them against you._ _You won't have anyone else. They care more for her than you. They'll leave you. Just like Blake. You'll be alone._

_Do what you should have done on the train._

Adam's hand found Wilt's hilt.

_Betray her before she betrays you!_

.

.

.

_"... You're losing yourself."_

"Adam!" His trance broke, and like waking from a dream, his eyes focused anew on Weiss. She was trembling, now, her hand grabbing tightly onto her rapier, but her stance screaming that she wanted to run. Adam realized at some point that he had drawn Wilt an inch out from its sheath, the gleam of crimson unmistakable against the black of his coat and Blush alike. He could see the two paths ahead of him:

He could demand that she leave his sight and throw the Schnee out. He could let her know just how worthless her opinion was to him, and that it would be best if they never spoke of this argument again: she was a smart girl. She'd know it was for her safety, not his feelings. Weiss would return to her teammates and JNPR and she would no doubt tell them anyway. A split would develop: those who believed she went too far, and those who believed it was him who did so. Rich humans were always so good at spinning lies, so that he doubted his faction would be large. It would be enough to shatter friendships. Forever.

Or...

Adam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "My apologies, I did not mean to grow so angry. Just _do not touch me, again._ " He could swallow his pride and keep his illusion of normalcy for just a little longer. Slowly, and with a hand that he had to force still, he sheathed Wilt.

Weiss' trembling stopped, and she let her gaze fall towards the ground. Her stance did not change.

"I... shouldn't have slapped you like that. I've just seen too many groups—" 'Of faunus' went unsaid. "Getting together for self-defense turn... violent."

Adam took a single step forward. He refused to let her hide under implications.

"Say it."

Weiss winced and glanced away.

"Say it!" Adam shouted.

"I-I'm afraid another White Fang will show up, alright! Why shouldn't I! You're... you're practically having an underground training camp of faunus hiding in Beacon and you think I can just _ignore_ it! Just... just forget it! Forget I said anything at all!" Her rage felt hollow as she rushed towards the door.

Adam watched her leave, not taking a single step to follow. "Tell me something, Schnee," he called out to her.

She stopped with the door half-open.

"Would you have feared me if I were human?"

Her grip on the handle tightened, and her shoulders sank. They both knew the answer was no.

_"Sorry,"_ Weiss whispered.

And then she was gone.

* * *

By horrid coincidence, the two were the only ones in the dorm, that night. With all of her might, Ruby would not have been able to cut through the tension between Weiss and Adam. The two sat on their respective beds, Weiss doing homework, Adam having finished his and already moved to reading through one of his textbooks yet again with his back against the wall and his Scroll by his side. There were only the sounds of her pencil against paper and pages flipping by.

Neither wanted to say anything: Weiss out of fear, Adam out of simple disinterest. If the Schnee would so openly continue her racism, then so be it. He refused to pretend like they were more than acquaintances at most: in the White Fang, you learned to fight alongside people you honestly wouldn't care if they were dead. You don't choose your partners, after all.

Weiss, on the other hand, paradoxically feared that she had messed up for good, this time. She was afraid he would do something stupid, like form some kind of faunus brigade that'd no doubt spiral out of control, but she was much more afraid to... as much as she hated to admit it, lose her friend. And Adam _was_ her friend, just a... very stubborn and sometimes dangerous one. Weiss stroked the bridge of her nose, mind fighting between what she had been taught all her life, and the simple desire to just keep a friend.

She groaned in frustration and threw her homework aside.

* * *

Adam felt the bed sink ever so slightly. A few seconds later, the source shifted closer. Then closer again. Then, he could catch a flicker of movement from out of the corner of his eye.

"... I propose a truce."

He glanced at the source of the disturbance on other side of the bed: the Schnee was sitting a few inches away, her legs and arms crossed even as she leaned against the wall. Perhaps it was the simple difference between her usual, princess-like attire and a simple gown with her hair let down that made her sound more genuine. Adam refused to believe it was actually because he _wanted_ her to sound genuine in any way.

Adam let the suggestion linger for a few seconds, then sighed.

"Elaborate."

Weiss shuffled uncomfortably near him, yet continued to try and sound confident as she replied: "It is clear that there are some... severe, if not almost irreconcilable differences between us that may prove to be an obstacle if we wish to cooperate well in combat. So, I am suggesting a cessation of our hostilities: if I can trust you and stop comparing you to the rest of the rabble, then you be nicer and... try not to hate me so much." Her attempts to speak in a cordial and official manner slowly faded into a quiet mumble. Try as she might, Weiss found it a little awkward and more than a little saddening to try and talk someone out of genuine hatred, especially when that person was supposed to be your partner, if not your friend.

Adam, meanwhile, could scarcely believe she was being this blunt about it. He snorted and closed his book, finally turning to face Weiss in full.

"Is this how you befriended the others," he asked dryly.

Weiss let out a hollow chuckle. "Not exactly. It hasn't ever come to this, with them, or with anyone, for that matter..."

"Tell me..." Adam let the words drag and linger in the air for just a moment, enough to get Weiss to finally look at him. "What do I get out of this?"

To his surprise, she smirked.

"The same thing I do, of course: another friend," her eyes subconsciously fell towards the Scroll Adam had gotten so attached to, recently, "and... maybe not needing to feel alone, sometimes?"

It was hard for him to ignore the memories of dejection he'd seen in Weiss' eyes so long ago when they first tried peace. Ruby and Yang would always have each other, but Weiss always looked... separate from them both. Of course, when they formed the social core of your team, how wouldn't someone feel a little left out? Especially after such a catastrophic first meeting. And second. And third, really.

The fourth wasn't much better, from what he'd heard.

So she was left to either butt in on two close sisters, or talk with someone who despised her family. An easy way to find yourself alone amongst 'friends'.

It was pathetic. Adam cared little for loneliness. He cared little for the detachment he felt even when he was surrounded by those kind to him. He cared little for the fact that he felt like he was always waiting for something. Someone.

He cared little for the fact that his heart wouldn't let him feel like he wasn't alone until Blake had arrived.

Yes, he didn't care about having to come to terms with the fact that he'd been abandoned at all.

Adam noticed that Weiss was holding her hand out towards him, an awkward smile on her face.

"Hmph, what an awful deal."

She flinched, but hid it behind a neutral expression. Weiss began to pull her hand back, but neutrality turned to surprise as Adam reached out and shook it.

"The worst truce I've ever accepted."

Weiss took a second to realize that it was just his stubborn way of accepting things. This time, she couldn't hide how her eyes lit up.

"Great! Now, as our first order of friendly business... show me how you finished Oobleck's homework that fast, please?" Weiss leaned forward with what she must have assumed was her most charming smile. Adam could see the relief in her eyes.

He hoped she couldn't see the traitorous relief in his own. Even if it was a Schnee... a truce did not sound all that terrible, to him.

* * *

In retrospect, Adam never understood why he thought it would last.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: What I'm trying to do with Weiss is imagining her in a situation where she is, essentially, alone. In canon, Blake did not seem to hold any true ill will towards Weiss, meaning there was someone who had somewhat similar characteristics. Someone fresh. With Adam replacing Blake, pre-Volume 2 she's stuck between a rock(nudging her way into a pair of sisters) and a hard place(someone intelligent, mature and stubborn like her, but hates her).
> 
> As such, she's grown a little more insecure and more fitting of her own theme. Weiss never wants to return to that hateful, cold home she lived in before, and often her conflicts with Adam both on and 'off-screen' here end with the reality check that if Adam ends up despising her fully, outlook for friends is grim.
> 
> On the other side, there's Adam facing a similar situation: he's too stubborn to admit even to himself that he really enjoys having friends around, and is secretly afraid of doing something that would cause them to abandon him like Blake has. While the two tried to be more friendly and genuinely did become more fond of each other, their individual prejudices subconsciously keep pushing them right back to acquaintances.


	14. The Storm

** The Storm **

* * *

It'd been a few days, now, since he and Weiss had officially made their truce, and Adam had finally allowed himself to sink into normalcy once again. His mornings were taken up by the increasingly organized self defense club he held for his faunus students, his afternoons were unsurprisingly absorbed by school, and his evenings were spent not alone but with his team. He had even begun genuinely talking with other students beyond Velvet.

It had taken months, but finally, Adam began to feel like he truly belonged.

And he knew that could never last.

That afternoon however, there didn't appear to be any reason for his suspicions to someone looking from the outside: Weiss was all but skipping down the roads lined with balloons and ribbons, Yang and Ruby were relentlessly teasing her about her sudden happiness and how it was over something as droll as organization, and Adam was idly chipping into their conversation from behind them, eyes scanning across the faceless crowd. With the Vytal Festival approaching, his team—or, rather, Weiss—had decided that they should watch the docks for the arriving students of Vacuo and introduce themselves as representatives of Beacon.

In other words, she was gathering information. He thought it clever, at least. His attention was soon drawn to a crime scene down another street: another Dust shop broken into from the looks of it, and one utterly ransacked, no less. These stories had been showing up more and more often, and Adam could not figure out just who it was or what it was for. The closest thing to a 'clue' he had was Ruby mentioning that the reason she was allowed into Beacon early was stopping another robbery by a 'Roman Torchwick'. Was this the beginnings of some sort of turf war? The train car would have set the White Fang for months to come: it couldn't have been them...

He noticed the conversation around him die down. His teammates must have followed his sight.

It was the second Dust shop that week, and they had not even touched the money.

"You, ah... you thinkin' the White Fang?" one of the police officers on scene asked the other without worry: another sign of just how common this was getting.

"I'm thinkin' we don't get paid enough."

"Of course it would be them," Weiss said with a shake of her head. "Those White Fang really are just an awful bunch of degenerates."

Adam arched an eyebrow at Weiss' sudden, snide comment. "I don't exactly see how they were related to this attack," he dryly retorted.

"Please, didn't you hear the police? It was clearly them!"

"They would have no reason to have all of this Dust—"

"They don't have a reason for anything they do! They're just a bunch of ruffians, and insane ones, at that!" Weiss interrupted Adam outright.

He took a deep breath and prepared himself. This was going to be a long day.

"The White Fang are neither insane, nor do they commit acts without reason: if anything, it is the exact _opposite._ It is the—" He caught himself before he could accidentally imply his former position through a slip of the tongue or speaking for them. " _They believe_ it's the only way to achieve equality."

Weiss scoffed in a mix of disgust and disbelief. "I didn't know equality meant wiping humanity off the face of the planet."

"How unsurprising: push a group far enough and they start demanding revenge." Though he spoke without remorse, Adam knew he needed to abandon this conversation, and fast. Whether or not he was a traitor, the White Fang—especially the Vale Cell—were still _his_ people, and all the time in the world playing student wouldn't let him take too many attacks on them lying down.

"Still, they had no reason to attack this shop. They serve faunus, they didn't jack up their prices, the money wasn't stolen when the White Fang would need that just as much _and_ they're in the middle of Downtown Vale. Something isn't adding up." Adam turned away to hide his sigh of relief when that got Ruby's attention. Weiss, however, only appeared to be silent because she was glaring daggers at him, clearly in thought.

"Adam's got a point: they never caught that Torchwick guy I fought a while ago, maybe it was him..."

"I thought about that, but, what would a random criminal need with that much dust?" Adam replied, hoping to steer the conversation as far away from the White Fang as possible.

"That does not change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." Weiss yanked the topic back. As he suspected, Weiss was only quiet because she was thinking of what else to say and frankly, her tone sounded like it was implying something a little too close for comfort. "Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat and steal!"

He glared down at Weiss. She was playing with fire.

"That's not... _necessarily_ true." Yang actually agreeing with Weiss was like a knife to the back. Adam's glare only intensified and locked onto Yang.

"And what, pray tell, do you _mean_ by 'those faunus'?" He growled out at them both. Shame on him, he thought, for forgetting that he was still amidst humans.

_"Hey! Stop that faunus!"_

Fate had an awful sense of humor.

While the rest of the team rushed over to the docks to see what the commotion was about, Adam leisurely strolled up, taking the time to cool himself off. He had gotten to the railing just in time to see a well-built monkey faunus with blonde hair chuck a banana peel right at a police officer's face. White, open shirt, beaten up blue jeans, scuffed and ratty sneakers... either he was a stowaway, he was from Vacuo, or a combination of the two.

With a laugh that seemed just a bit too sinister for someone just stowing away, the faunus was off, racing up the stairs and easily outpacing the police. In only a couple seconds, he was darting past them. Perhaps it said something about the mystery stowaway's personality that he found the time to flirtatiously wink at Yang as he passed.

Perhaps it said something about _Yang's_ personality that she was quick enough to wink and smirk back.

Weiss turned to her with a confused, scandalized expression.

"... What? It was instinct!"

"Ugh, whatever, we have to catch him!" She dashed off in pursuit, leaving the rest of the team to follow, right up until Adam jogged his way to the front and started to slow down, purposefully making the team slower with him.

"Is there any particular _reason_ we're chasing after him?"

"Well, as huntresses—and huntsman—in training, we should be helping the authorities, now pick up the pace!"

"Are you certain that's the _only_ reason, _Schnee?_ " That got her to stop near an intersection and spin on her heels to glare at Adam.

"And just _what_ are you implying?" Realizing only afterwards that stopping meant the faunus was gaining ground, Weiss scoffed and started stomping forward.

"Sal-u-tations!" And fell right onto her rear as a young teen suddenly spun around the corner in front of her. She was an odd type: pale-orange hair, bright, light-green eyes full of such much innocent glee Adam could've sworn she was glowing, and a plain outfit broken up only by strange, black segments on her neck and stockings with glowing, green stripes. She smelled... strange. Metallic. Glowing attire and a scent of metal. This must have been an Atlas child.

Weiss grumbled something and pushed herself up to her feet, then tried to advance. The girl only stared at them all with a goofy smile, apparently not comprehending that she wanted her to move. Stuck at an impasse, Ruby was the first one to actually address her.

"Uh... hello?"

"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny introduced herself loudly to the four with slightly stilted speech. Definitely Atlas. Only they would have someone so cooped up that they couldn't even talk to people correctly. The group, himself included, took a step back from her.

"Hi Penny, I'm Ruby!"

"Yang."

"Look, we are a little busy right now, so if you wouldn't mind stepping out of the way, that would be really nice." Weiss didn't give a chance for this silliness to go on any longer. Penny stared blankly at Weiss for a moment, then suddenly jolted like she had snapped out of a trance and replied:

"Wow! That's a really long name! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Yang snorted. "Hey, look at that, she has jokes! But, uh, really, we oughta be going, now!" Adam had already begun walking in the opposite direction by the time Yang even finished saying that much. Ruby waved and followed, leaving Penny just staring ahead at them once again with that same smile.

"Take care!" After just a moment too long to be natural, Penny exuberantly waved them off.

Weiss stroked the bridge of her nose.

"Now we'll never catch that degenerate..." she grumbled.

Adam tried to bite back his response, but it was no use. "Oh, please! Does being a stowaway really warrant calling him a ruffian and a degenerate as if he were common street scum?" He pointed at Weiss, making it very clear that this was a direct challenge.

"Laws are laws! Just give him time and I bet he'll join the White Fang, like the rest of them." Now, it was Adam's turn to look scandalized.

"So ignorant, as if talk like that isn't the reason people join in the first place! Always acting so high and mighty while you stomp the weak under your shoe, you're no different from the rest of your company!" Weiss' eyes briefly flashed with hurt, but hardened just as quickly. When Adam attempted to march off, Weiss was right behind him.

"How dare you talk to me like that! I distinctly recall we had a truce, Adam!"

"Just because you _hide_ how you feel about me doesn't mean I'm going to stand by and let you spout your prejudice against the faunus!"

"Prejudice implies that it isn't based on fact! Are you telling me that a criminal faunus _wouldn't_ join the White Fang?"

"I'm telling you that saying a criminal would solely based on him _being_ a faunus only throws your true colors out for the world to see! The colors of a _Schnee!_ "

"That's not a denial, Adam: are you saying the White Fang are radicals, after all?"

Yang and Ruby watched helplessly: it was the two most stubborn and needlessly aggressive members of their team. Short of physical interference, there was just nothing they could do at all. They could only hope the fight ended soon.

* * *

Moonlight streamed into their dorm room over the two arguing partners. It didn't.

"I don't get this!" Weiss threw her arms up. "We had a truce! You said we were going to be friends, and now you're causing this huge problem over nothing!"

"Nothing? You're insulting my entire race!" He flung his hat onto the ground in rage. By now, the two were standing nary a foot away, glaring fiercely at one another as they argued. It hadn't become a physical altercation, but Ruby and Yang feared it was only minutes away.

" _You're_ defending a group of terrorists who despises humanity! The faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

"And your kin aren't? Don't make me laugh! They fight fire with fire, to make sure people like Cardin, people like Jacques—" Weiss inhaled sharply at the direct mention of her father, and her eyes flickered with rage, "people like _**you**_ can't step on them with impunity!"He slammed his foot down onto his hat, and it wasted away into wilting petals.

Weiss looked like she'd been slapped. Being called hateful and racist? She was a Schnee, she was used to that. But to be compared directly to _**him,**_ to Jacques, by someone who actually knew her? Who spoke to her? Who she at least tried to consider a friend? That was a knife to the back, even from Adam.

Hurt gave way to indignation.

"They stepped on _my_ family all the time! I'm the victim, here!" The two silently glared at one another, emerald and ice boring into each other in a terrible desire to see the other crack, and the silent wish that the other would just relent. When Adam did not, Weiss continued.

"You want to know why I hate the White Fang?" She jabbed his chest with her finger. "Why I can't trust other faunus?" Another jab. A part of Weiss hoped Adam caught that he wasn't included in that. She just couldn't understand why he was getting so upset over this all of the sudden.

She slowly stepped away from him and turned to the window. Adam did not follow. Instead, he stepped back, and reached for something in his travel bag.

"They've been at war with my family since the beginning. A real war, as in actual bloodshed." She turned back to face him. "Can you even imagine having a target painted on your family's back since before you were even alive? Seeing your friends, your _family,_ disappear, and show up in an obituary the next day, even as a child? Knowing that the people under you are marked for death for things they never even touched, never _could_ touch?" Weiss' eyes stayed locked onto his: she had meant to be more kind, or at least to just give context, but to hear her be compared to her father so casually... it was then that she understood that he never knew, and never would know what it was like.

"Have you ever seen people you know executed, knowing there are people out there who cheered? I've lost seven board members and I knew every last one of them. How about seeing entire chunks of your livelihood stolen in a flash like the entire train worth of dust that just so _happened_ to vanish?" So enraptured in her cold tirade, Weiss was, that she never saw Adam's fist clenching, nor did she recognize the building fury in his eyes.

"Have you ever had to sit in a house surrounded and filled with hate, from the parents to your own siblings?" She didn't notice him walking forward, either.

"Have you ever... ever had to wonder if people would cheer if you died, too?" Weiss' gaze fell to the ground for only a moment. When she brought it back up to face her opponent in this verbal duel, however, she found Adam looming over her, not even two inches away with eyes of glowing crimson. Yet, this time, she could not see that same hatred and bloodlust she had before their truce. No, this time, Weiss saw...

Frustration.

_**"Yes."** _

Out of sight, Ruby's shoulders slumped, and her optimism finally began to crumble. Was this what was going on in her group the entire time? Her team was falling apart behind her back and she never even noticed. She was a terrible leader. She summoned up her courage and, for the first time, tried to step between the two. Ruby placed a hand on Weiss' shoulder.

"Weiss, maybe we should..." Weiss only threw Ruby's hand back and shoved Adam a step away. Yang reached for Adam, but paused when she saw a glimpse of something pale in his hand.

"No! Then you should know, Adam! You should know why I hate the White Fang! You should know why I can never trust the other faunus: because their methods of murder and terrorism ruins _everyone's_ lives—" Adam forced something into Weiss' arms hard enough to throw her against her bed.

**"MY METHODS WERE WORKING!"** Adam bellowed.

Silence.

.

.

.

_"A-Adam?"_ Ruby's soft voice, so fragile and confused, slipped through the air. Her silver eyes—no, _all_ of their eyes—were on Weiss.

The custom Grimm mask of a White Fang commander stared back at them from her lap.

Weiss was the first one to dare look up at the man—the monster—standing in front of them. All of that hate in his eyes had burned out, leaving only a cold, watchful shell. If Weiss didn't know any better, in fact, she would've thought they looked hollow, but right now, the only thing that was important to her were the other two girls in this room. After all, their actions would determine their fates... and if what he was implicating wasn't just some sick joke, their lives.

"Who are you?" Ruby's voice cracked.

Adam closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and confirmed their worst fears. "I am Adam Taurus, ex-major and former commander of the White Fang's Vale Cell."

Yang's fist collided with his jaw. In a blur of red and rose petals, Ruby jumped in between them before it could get worse.

"Wait! Wait! W-we should hear him out!" She shouted. Were it anyone else, Yang would have struck them all the same. Her eyes were a vivid red, flames licking at her hair.

"What's there to hear, Rubes? He's not just a terrorist, he's _leading_ them! He was lying to us!" Ember Celica deployed itself around her hands.

"Led. Past tense." Yang yanked Ruby out of the way at the sound of the terrorist's voice and held her sister behind her. Ruby must have gotten through to Yang however, for now she only took up a defensive stance. Yet, Adam did not take up a fighting stance of his own, only collapsing onto his bed and leaning forward on his knees. He dragged a hand through his hair and horns, not bringing his eyes to meet theirs. His aura did not even activate itself.

"A... friend of mine had shown me what I'd done. What I'd become. It was hard for me to accept at the time, but I should have known even back then that I was staring into the abyss for too long. So, I left. I left what I'd been building for the past three years and everyone I'd met with it, all to follow _her._ She would return to her home to try and change the White Fang at its roots, and I would come here to..." Blake had said it was to learn to coexist with humans, but, he knew now what his true mission now, was.

"Cleanse myself of the darkness in my heart." Met with only more silence, Adam dragged his sight up to the three girls. While Adam knew he might've appeared aloof, the truth was that he'd simply accepted whatever was about to occur. He had no plans of going without a fight, however.

Ruby nudged past Yang's arm. "... Is it working?"

Adam turned to the innocent one of the four, and a quiet chuckle escaped him. "I consider three humans to be my friends and haven't had the urge to set fire to a Dust shop in two days: I'd call that progress."

"O-oh, well, uh... two days is _kinda_ long..." Ruby fumbled and tried to make something nice out of it. Yang narrowed his eyes at him.

"It was a joke. A poor one, sorry. However, for what it's worth, I did enjoy being here. My word doesn't mean much, that I know, but I can assure you that I had no plans on... 'regressing' any time soon. I doubt I can ever be forgiven for the acts of my past, but that doesn't mean I can't try to at least be remembered for _something_ pleasant." As Adam spoke, Yang's eyes pierced through him like an x-ray, searching for everything from flaws in his story to his tone. She could sense a little venom in there, alright, yet it wasn't aimed at them. If anything, sounded like it was directed solely at himself.

And so they remained there, silently arguing with and within themselves on what to do, if anything. He was a terrorist leader, but he'd left. He'd killed who knows how many, now he wanted to save many more. He was a beast, but he was trying to restore his humanity.

He was their enemy, but he was also their friend.

Ruby steeled herself and stood tall. She knew exactly how she felt about this. Her lips parted to speak.

_"I-It was you..."_ Weiss spoke first. The three suddenly remembered that she had been sitting there that entire time, eyes wide and bearing a storm of emotions as she stared into the mask. When she finally, shakily, stood up, those ice-blue eyes had finally settled on one thing to bare to the world: betrayal. The mask trembled in her grip.

"It was you, that entire time? You were the one _leading_ a war on my family? A-all of my friends in Vale who disappeared, all... all of my family members who perished, all that stolen Dust and Lien? _You?_ A-and you just sat there, like nothing had happened?" She took a few, slow steps forward. Ruby and Yang glanced nervously between one another. Weiss' breath quickened as rage tried so hard to fight against the feelings of betrayal and sorrow, only to be thrown back beneath the waves as soon as it breached the surface. Her throat grew tight and her eyes burned. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"You called yourself my _teammate,_ my _friend,_ when you killed my loved ones _yourself?_ How... how can you sit there and do that! How can you be so _despicable!_ You expect me to believe that you're nothing more than... than monstrous, _villainous_ scum? Do you _really_ think I'd believe that you aren't waiting to stab me in the back and enjoy it? I bet you were cheering just like the rest of your damned group when my cousins were executed! I-I bet you brought the blade against their neck yourself." The heiress caught herself sniffling as she advanced. This was all his fault. Her _partner_ , the one who had the nerve to sit beside her every day, was the one who ruined her life and laughed about it.

A mirthless, broken laugh slipped from her. "Yeah, yeah! If I went and found their final moments that you _broadcasted_ , I'd find you there, wouldn't I?! I'd hear _your_ voice! See _your_ wretched face!" She stood only a foot away from him, now.

Adam said nothing.

It was all the confirmation she needed. Her fury breached the surface of her sadness, dragging out all the spite and fire right with it. She hurled the mask at him, rage blinding her and instead sending it clattering against the wall.

"You disgust me!" She slapped him. There was no guilt, this time.

"You're worse than a Grimm!" Another slap. He wasn't her teammate. Not anymore.

"I despise you!" Her nails raked across aura.

Adam didn't react. Her anger soared higher.

"I-I... I'll kill you!" Weiss shrieked and lunged at him with tears of rage in her eyes. Her hands never reached Adam's throat.

"W-what? Ruby? Yang?" The former had stepped between the two, the latter grabbing onto Weiss' shoulder to hold her in place. Her eyes bounced between the three in a panic that only grew when she saw Adam clutching Wilt and Blush. Her eyes burned again, but this time it was in rage both at herself for nearly throwing herself into what could've been her death, and her supposed friends from keeping her away from rightful revenge.

"Look, Weiss, I know he's done some crazy things, but..." Yang began.

Weiss' eyes widened in shock. " _Crazy..."_ she repeated in total disbelief. "He's a murderer! You... you aren't actually taking his _side,_ are you?!"

"Yes! Well, no! There's another way around this!"

"I can't believe you, Yang! Ruby, talk some sense into her! This is ridiculous! You know what this barbarian's done!" Ruby winced under Weiss' gaze; even if the two hated each other, Weiss and Adam certainly had at least one thing in common: that positively withering glare. She nervously rubbed her wrist and looked around the room, searching for anything but her feuding friends.

"W-Weiss, he looks pretty serious about this, I mean, can't we at least give him a chance?" Weiss' glare stayed locked onto Ruby for an eternity, then began to fade. Her eyes dull, she finally appeared to relax at Ruby's words, and Yang sighed in relief. One step at a time.

_"Don't touch me,"_ her frozen, quiet voice surprised even Adam.

Yang blinked. "What?"

"I said don't touch me!" she screamed and pushed the shocked blonde away from her before storming off to the door and throwing it open. JNPR stood on the other side and were nearly bowled over as Weiss forced her way past them.

"Weiss! Weiss, wait, come back!" Ruby called after her, but it was too late. She was gone.

JNPR awkwardly stared at the members of R_AY for a few moments: Ruby staring disbelievingly at the door, Yang hunched over the window, gripping the windowsill hard enough for it to strain in her hands, and Adam sitting on his bed, looking like he was trying to bore a hole through the floor to Mistral with his gaze alone, black stripes through his hair looking just a _little_ too much like horns in the moonlight.

Jaune finally broke the tension. "We, uh... heard a big commotion, over here. Is everything alright?"

"... It's complicated," Adam murmured.

"We'll, um... we'll be fine, Jaune, don't worry! We just had a little fight, that's all..." Ruby tried to explain. While none of JNPR looked like they bought it, they respected their privacy enough to back away.

* * *

Weiss didn't know how long she'd been walking for. The sky was dark, but she heard the birds already awakening from their slumber. Normally, she loved the songs of those whimsical creatures, yet tonight, they sounded like the jeering of crows. Her friends had betrayed her. They'd taken the side of some _terrorist_ , someone whose hands were soaked in blood, instead of hers! She thought they were friends!

She thought they cared about her.

The fleeing girl barely thought to wipe the tears from her cheeks as she wandered through the empty streets of Vale. Weiss didn't know where she could go, now. There was no way she was going to go back to school with that _creature,_ but it wasn't like she could just walk around Vale forever. She'd need a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear. The cost wasn't a problem, it was that her father would no doubt notice the sudden drain of funds. He'd want answers. He'd _demand_ answers... and if he knew she wasn't at Beacon, the demand to return to that home would follow.

It wasn't fair! It just wasn't fair! Why?! She did everything she could, she was the best teammate she could be, and they'd just thrown her away! And that wasn't even the worst part!

Her breath briefly caught in her throat as she saw a cop car lingering near one of the few shops that was still open. Weiss turned and hurried off the other way.

The worst part was that every time she wanted to just tell the authorities what was happening, her mind would reel and she'd find herself racing somewhere else. The _worst_ part was that she didn't want to see Ruby and Yang get in trouble for harboring some criminal.

The _**worst**_ part was that Weiss knew, somewhere in there, she considered Adam a friend, too. A murderer. A terrorist. A faunus. A White Fang member. An enemy. A friend.

She let out a quiet scream of frustration as she spun around a corner, only to find herself toppling over onto someone. Great. Just great.

"O-oh, sorry!" Weiss looked down to see just who she'd struck.

"Sal-u-tations, 'Look We Are A Little Busy Right Now So If You Wouldn't Mind Stepping Out Of The Way That Would Be Really Nice'!"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And so some of the bigger changes begin! Don't worry, Sun(and Neptune) will show up eventually, but without Blake to attract him, he doesn't have much of a reason to stalk schools at night and cheer up dashing Schnees. Speaking of Schnees, while I admit I might be straddling the line between IC and OOC, I'm aiming to get across that Weiss and Adam are not all that different, both from parallels between Weiss and canon Blake, and in that they're both worrying so much about being abandoned or betrayed that they aren't letting anyone get close. A very Hedgehog's Dilemma kind of deal. In a way, Weiss now sees herself as the stray: at best, she has Winter and, well, that doesn't look like the most healthy relationship either.
> 
> With that said, next time, we'll get some insight on how Adam takes the search for Weiss, and how Ruby and Yang react to him when there's nothing bigger and more immediate to worry about(like Weiss and Adam getting into a real fight).
> 
> Comment and criticism always welcome.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment and criticism always welcome, thanks for reading.


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